‘Made in India’ Must Mean Trusted Quality: Venu Srinivasan

India must build products that global buyers trust and surpass the quality benchmarks set by leading manufacturing economies to secure a larger share of world markets, Venu Srinivasan said at the Indian Foundation for Quality Management (IFQM) Symposium 2026.

The IFQM chairman and TVS Motor Company chairman emeritus said India’s ambition of becoming a developed economy by 2047 would require strengths beyond cost competitiveness, with innovation, product development and design playing a greater role.

Several Indian companies already meet international quality standards, he noted. The challenge is to make that achievement more widespread and establish Indian products as a trusted choice globally.

THE QUALITY GAP

Speaking at the annual symposium in New Delhi, Srinivasan acknowledged the progress made by domestic businesses.

“Today, India has every reason to be confident that we can progress. There are many ways we can see it in our daily lives in companies that have achieved international standards of quality,” he said.

However, competing for a greater share of global manufacturing would require India to measure itself against established leaders.

“We have a long, long way to go because we have benchmarks in the world from Korea, China, Japan that we have to meet and exceed if you want a fair share of global manufacturing and products and services to come to India,” he said.

WINNING THE BUYER’S TRUST

Srinivasan identified trust as central to India’s manufacturing ambitions. Buyers, he said, should choose an Indian product with confidence in its quality.

“The Germans stood for quality...came Japan, Korea, China, and India has to very soon get on that bandwagon where you can buy an Indian product because it's a trusted product,” he said.

“This is the most important challenge for us.”

His emphasis on innovation and design placed product capability alongside manufacturing quality as a requirement for India’s longer-term growth.

QUALITY IS A CONTINUOUS PURSUIT

Srinivasan also cautioned that achieving a benchmark does not end the task. Businesses must keep improving as successive waves of products, processes and services displace earlier leaders.

The pace of change, he suggested, makes quality improvement a continuing responsibility for companies seeking to remain competitive.

Tata Sons Executive Chairman N Chandrasekaran also addressed the symposium.

With inputs from ANI