The 2nd Asian Network for Quality Congress and 18th Asia Quality Symposium was held at New Delhi from 16 to 18 August 2004.

The Congress was attended by over 500 delegates from Japan, China, Korea, USA, UK, Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and India. A total of 109 technical papers, including 67 papers from Associations / Societies of other Asian countries and regions were presented during the six concurrent sessions held on 17th & 18th August 2004. Dr. R A Mashelkar, Chairman, Quality Council of India and Director General CSIR were the Chief Guest. The conference was inaugurated by     Mr. Venu Srinivasan, CMD, TVS Motors India Ltd. Prof. N Kano addressed the delegates on the Mission of Asian Network for Quality.

The keynote addressed were delivered by Prof. N Kano, Chairman ANQ, Mr. Sanjay Arora, LG Electronics India Ltd. and Mr. Kohei Ushikubo, Board Member, Sanden Japan.

Concurrent sessions for the presentation of Technical papers covered the topics of Business Excellence, Manufacturing Excellence, Standards, Information Technology, Strategy & Policy Deployment, Six Sigma, Tools, Healthcare, Knowledge Management and Service Industry

Eminent speakers like Mr. Yoshinori Iizuka from Japan, Mr. Vinod Singhal from USA and Dr. Sang Chan Park presented their papers. Delegates had the opportunity to network and share their experiences in the field of Quality Management.

Panel discussions on the subjects of “Networking amongst Quality Professionals”,  “QMS/EMS certification credibility” and “Vision Quality 2020 for India” were held and quality professionals, researchers and practitioners of Quality Management participated in deliberation. The discussions were guided by Panel Chairpersons like Mr. Arun Bharat Ram, Maj. Gen. B R Gulati (Retd.) and Mr. K J Davasia.

Prof. Y Iizuka read out the report on the activities of ANQ Congress. Prof. N Kano extended invitation to all the delegates to participate in ‘International Conference on Quality’ to be held in Japan from 13-16 Sept. 2005. At the same time Dr. Chin Han Wang, President, Chinese Society for Quality (Chinese Taipei) extended invitation to participate in the 3rd ANQ Congress & 19th AQS scheduled to be held at Taiwan in Sept 18-21, 2005.

During the Closing plenary an Award function was held. Indian Society for Quality presented “Dronacharya Award” to Prof. Yoshikazu Tsuda, Prof. Yasutoshi Washio and Prof. H Kume for having made significant contribution to the Indian society through their work of teaching and counseling in the field of quality management with humility, dignity, respect for others and a sense of service.

Mr. Venu Srinivasan, CMD, TVS Motors India Ltd. was given “Jamsetji Tata Award” for having made significant contribution to the Indian society through his work of leading an organisation with an exceptional focus on holistic quality of management with humility, constancy of purpose, determination and setting an exceptional example to achieve outstanding results.

There was a general consensus that Quality Management has taken roots in India as evident by the quality of work being done. Deming prizes are being challenged and won. The Congress identified the areas of improvement and to align the Quality Management with socio-economic needs of country. It was decided to develop Quality Management technology for service sector and strengthening it in the manufacturing and government sector. A task force will be set up for integration / networking of organizations of Quality Professionals in India and another one for developing Vision Quality 2020 for India.

90 delegates from Asian countries in batches of 30 each visited Sona Koyo Steering Systems Ltd, Mindarika and SRF Chemical Business as part of plant visit.

The 2nd ANQ Congress and 18th AQS came to a successful end with a cultural programme and dinner for guests on 18th August 2004.