Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries (RIL) was given the IMC Juran Quality Medal for 2009. While accepting the award at the function hosted by Indian Merchants’ Chamber, Mukesh Ambani said the quality in every quarter is the bedrock of progress.

“As Indians, we need to overcome our ‘chalta hai’ (its okay) attitude. We need to focus on Juran — the global guru on quality — and not jugad (manoeuvring),” said Mukesh Ambani. Insisting on quantity with quality as the way forward, Mr. Ambani said one cannot exist without the other.

The function saw major Indian companies such as Larsen & Tubro, Reliance Infrastructure and Mepco Schlenk Engineering College being presented with the IMC-Ramakrishna Bajaj National Quality Award 2009 in the manufacturing, service, education and healthcare sectors.

IMC RBNQ Outstanding Achievement Trophies and IMC RBNQ Outstanding Achievement Trophies were awarded to around 30 Indian organizations such as Grasim Industries, ACC, Godrej & Boyce, Ashok Leyland, Hindustan Zinc, JSW Steel, BPCL, BHEL, Ambuja Cement etc. Dr. Ashok S Ganguly, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, was the chief guest and gave away the prizes to the companies. He made a special mention that the country should work hard on food security and banish hunger by 2025, the deadline set by the UN to wipe out hunger from the world.

Congratulating the winners, Mukesh Ambani said, “There is no doubt that India can achieve sustainable double digit growth. We are often talking about quantity but also need to talk about quality. Much of India’s growth today is being described and debated purely in quantitative terms and I believe that having achieved 8-9 per cent growth, the time has come for us to think in qualitative terms,” he said.

Stressing on the importance of nurturing the eco system, Mr. Mukesh Ambani said quality products can be produced only if inputs are good. So it is not enough to be an efficient manufacturer but also use quality inputs.

When talking about quality in education, Mukesh Ambani said “The Stanfords and Oxfords of education should be in India”. He added that the world-class university being planned by Reliance Foundation is likely to come up in Delhi or Mumbai.