LEADERSHIP - BOARDS/DIVISIONS

NABL_CHAIR

Padma Shri Prof. Subbanna Ayyappan, Chairperson

Chancellor, Central Agricultural University, Imphal; Chairman, Karnataka Science & Technology Academy, Bengaluru and Adjunct Professor, NIAS, Bengaluru

Former Secretary, DARE, Govt. of India & Director General, ICAR, New Delhi; President, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi

Born in Alakere, Karnataka, India on 10 December, 1955; Educated at National High School, Bangalore, 1967-70; National College, Bangalore, 1971; College of Fisheries, Mangalore, UAS, Bangalore, 1971-77; Ph.D. Bangalore University, 1988.

Scientist, Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore, 1978-84; Senior Scientist and Principal Scientist, 1984-95; Director, Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubaneswar,1996-2000; Director, Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai, 2000-2002; Deputy Director General (Fisheries), ICAR, New Delhi, 2002-09;Founder Chief Executive, National Fisheries Development Board, Hyderabad, 2006-08; Secretary to Government of India, Department of Agricultural Research & Education (DARE) and Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi, 2010-16.Also served as Member of Governing Boards of several FAO and CGIAR Institutes.

Specific Research areas include Fisheries, Freshwater Aquaculture and Aquatic Microbiology; Fellow of several National Academies and Societies, including National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) and National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI); Conferred D.Sc. (honoris causa) by 15 Universities and over 30 awards; Recipient of Padma Shri, 2022 and Karnataka Rajyotsava Award, 2013.

Chairing several national and international Committees, Prof. Ayyappan has also represented the country in important international fora. His visits to over 40 countries have developed a deep understanding and widened the horizon of his vision of Food & Agriculture, Education and Rural development, especially in the Developing countries.

Mr. N Venkateswaran, CEO

Mr. N Venkateswaran has completed Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) from Madurai Kamaraj University and Master of Science (M.S.) in Quality Management from BITS Pilani. Mr. Venkateswaran has about 25 years of working experience with 9 years in Industry and 16 years in NABL.
Mr. Venkateswaran is a member of many international committees like ISO WG 44, ISO WG 56, ISO WG 57, ISO TC 212 etc. He is also member of APAC PT Committee, Technical Committee etc in APAC Region and member of ILAC Accreditation Committee, Arrangement Committee, Laboratory Committee etc in ILAC Region.
Mr. Venkateswaran is a well renowned faculty for ISO/IEC 17011, ISO/IEC 17025, ISO/IEC 17043 and ISO/IEC 17034 standards in India and have done number of training programs on the same.
Mr. Venkateswaran has initiated the concept of Laboratory Conclave and PTP / RMP Conclave in India.
Mr. Venkateswaran has conducted number of NABL Audits as Lead Assessor. He is an APAC Evaluator and participated in evaluation of Accreditation Bodies in other economies.
Mr. Venkateswaran has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) from 31 May 2019.

Padma Shri Prof. (Dr.) Mahesh Verma, Chairperson

Dr. Mahesh Verma, Chairperson, National Accreditation Board for Hospitals &Healthcare providers (NABH) is known for his patient-friendly approach. He is internationally acclaimed in the field of dental surgery and he is a Padma Shri awardee, Dr. B. C. Roy awardee and National Science & Technology awardee. He is currently the Vice Chancellor of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University,New Delhi and ProfessorEmeritusat Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences. He is the president of International Association for Disability&Oral Health (iADH) India Chapter and Indian Academy of Restorative Dentistry (IARD).He is also President-elect of International Association for Dental Research (IADR) India Division and Indian Society for Dental Research.

Dr. Atul Mohan Kochhar, CEO

Dr.Atul Mohan Kochhar obtained his MBBS and MD (Dermatology) from the prestigious Delhi University. He was awarded the University Gold medal for excellence in the field of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology. He is also a Diplomate of National Board (DNB- Dermatology and Venereology), a Member of the National Academy of Medical Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology.

He worked since 2003, as a Professor & Consultant in the Department of Dermatology & STD, Lok Nayak Hospital and Maulana Azad Medical College and, New Delhi.

Over the years he has held various Organizational positions viz. the President, Secretary, Vice President, and Executive member of the IADVL –Delhi State branch and has successfully organized as Organizing Secretary various conferences of IADVL – at State and National Level. He is the recipient of various state and national awards including the prestigious Sardari Lal Memorial Award for the year 2015. He is the current President – Society for Pediatric Dermatology and Founder Secretary -Scientific Cosmetological Society. He has More than 70 publications, 4 books and many chapters and multimedia to his credit.

An active practicing clinician, with a passion for quality in healthcare, a Principal Assessor with NABH since 2016, he has since December 2019, taken over as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare providers of India. Quality, promotion of patient safety and taking Best healthcare practices to the ‘poorest of the poor ’ are his mission in life.

Mr. Deep Kapuria, Chairperson

Mr. Deep Kapuria is the Chairman of The Hi-Tech Group of Companies. Group comprises of The Hi-Tech Gears Ltd, The Hi-Tech Engineering Systems, The Hi-Tech e-Soft & The Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz. The Hi-Tech Gears manufacturing facilities are also located in Canada & US.

The group spans a wide spectrum of products and services. Manufacturing includes Powertrain Components, Mobile Robots (Industrial & Defense), ADAS (Advance Driver Assistance System). Services include hi-end engineering, AI, system design etc.

He is also the Chairman of ‘Global Innovation & Technical Alliance (GITA)’, a Public Private Partnership (PPP) company promoted jointly by the Technology Development Board (TDB), Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Over the last two decades, Mr. Kapuria has held eminent positions in Industry, Industry associations and Government bodies.

He has had the privilege to lead the industry to support the policy makers at Trade Talks at various WTO Ministerial and Bi-lateral Trade negotiations.

He has been a member on “Trade & Investment” taskforce of B-20 for over a decade.

He was recently the Co-Chairman for the Task Force on “Digital Economy & Industry 4.0” at B20 Argentina. He has been a Non-government Member on various Govt. Committees including Make-in-India, Skill Council, MSME Ministry Task Force, Ease of Doing Business, High-level Committee on National Manufacturing Policy etc.

Currently Mr. Kapuria is the Chairman of the CII National Committee on Design, the Co-Chair of CII National Council on International Trade Policy & the Chairman of CII Regional Committee on Central Europe.

Mr. Kapuria is also the Past President of the ‘Auto Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA)’. He also was Chair of various committees for the Sectoral Association including the ACMA Centre of Technology (ACT).

Mr. Deep Kapuria has studied at Mayo College, Ajmer and graduated in Engineering from BITS, Pilani. He is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School, USA.

Mr. Rajesh Maheshwari, CEO

Mr. Maheshwari holds Masters in Chemistry and MBA and has almost 3 decades of experience in quality assurance / management, industrial manufacturing as well as on standards, technical regulations, accreditation & conformity assessment. He has been working in area of accreditation from the initial years of NABL and accreditation systems in India since 1999 and is also an APAC peer evaluator for undertaking peer evaluations of other accreditation bodies.

Mr. Maheshwari joined NABCB in 2012 and was responsible for managing Inspection Body Accreditation Program of National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB). He was subsequently promoted to Director (Project Planning & Implementation Division) for Quality Council of India (QCI) wherein he has been responsible for Project Conceptualization, Planning & Management for various projects being executed by QCI, especially for Government. He has earlier worked for National Accreditation Board for Testing & Calibration Laboratories (NABL), then under the Department of Science & Technology (DST) for more than a decade, managing the Testing and Medical Laboratory Accreditation Programs of NABL. Prior to this, had worked in Specialty Chemicals Manufacturing Industry for about a decade. 

Mr. P. R. Mehta, Chairperson

Premendra Raj Mehta is former President of Council of Architecture, India. COA is a statutory Body created by Government of India under the provision of Architects Act 1972, and it is charged with the responsibility to regulate the standards of Education and Practice of Architects, besides registering the Architects. Mr Mehta is currently a member of Technology Sub Mission of Housing for All mission of Government of India.

Mr Mehta is former member of Research Council of Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee ( CSIR-CBRI), Lalit Kala Academy and Chairman of All India Board of Architecture, Town Planning & Applied Art Education of AICTE. He has been member of National Board of Accreditation, GATE Committee of Ministry of Education and several other forums concerned with development of higher Education in India. He has also been a member of Expert Committee of Ministry of Commerce on Services.

Mr Mehta has represented India at WTO and has participated in several Bilateral and Multilateral negotiations on Market Access for professionals. He has also presented a paper of Recognition of Qualification at WTO, Geneva. He has spoken, as Key Note Speaker, at several national and International forums on subject of Architectural Education, Higher Education, Urban Design and Urban Management, General Agreement on Trade in Services, Professional Practice etc.

Extensively travelled, Mr Mehta is in active practice since 1979 and he is the Architect for the Redevelopment of Connaught Place, New Delhi. He holds post graduate qualification in Urban Design and is an Alumnus of School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. He has been a Visiting Professor at his alma mater for over two decades.

Mr Mehta is also Director of Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS) known for Jaipur Foot. Over 2 million disabled persons across the globe are the beneficiary of the assistive devices provided by BMVSS, free of cost. Mr Mehta is a recipient of Helen Keller Award for service to Disabled.

Prof (Dr) Varinder S Kanwar, CEO

Dr. Varinder S Kanwar holds Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, M.E. in Structural Engineering, Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Development and BE in Civil Engineering. He carries more than 27 years of Research; Teaching and Administrative Experience. He is a fellow of Institution of Engineers and senior member of IEEE, Life Member of ISTE, ICI, IGS, IRC.

Dr. Kanwar holds academic and administrative positions in institutes like NIT Hamirpur, Government Polytechnic Hamirpur, Thapar University Patiala and Punjab Technical University Jalandhar. He served as the founding Registrar and further Vice Chancellor of Chitkara University, Himachal Pradesh (NAAC A+). He is member of various inspection committees convened to grant affiliation to the University and to assess compliance with regulatory norms, He is also on the panel of Board of Studies – Civil Engineering of various Universities. Nominated as non-official member of State Level Working Committee – Town and Country Planning Department, Government of Himachal Pradesh. He served as Chairperson as well as member in NAAC Peer Assessment Teams. He is actively involved in industrial consultancy and technology development to provide suitable sustainable solutions in problems areas such as waste minimization, reuse or recycle of waste generated.

Dr. Kanwar has written 8 books, 80 research papers in national and international journals, 17 research papers in conferences, supervised 3 M.E. and 8 Ph.D. scholars, filed 10 patents out of which 3 are granted. He has completed 7, and continuing 2, Government funded research projects of more than 4 crore INR. His expertise research areas include Health Monitoring of Structures, Sustainable Environment and Alternate Construction Materials using Industrial Waste.

Dr Kanwar was felicitated by Government of Himachal Pradesh for “Excellence in Promotion of Environment Conservation and Sustainable Development” in the year 2021 and 2019. He is the recipient of “Time 2 Leap awards under the category Best Professor of the Year – Socio Environment Enterprises” awarded by Hon’ble Minister of State – MSME, Government of India in 2021. He was awarded as “Outstanding Concrete Technologist 2020” by Indian Concrete Institute and Ultratech Cement Ltd. Dr Kanwar is recipient of National Builder Award by Rotary Club of India in the year 2018.

Mr. Vipin Sondhi, Chairperson

Mr. Vipin Sondhi is an alumnus of The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, The Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, and did his schooling at The Lawrence School, Sanawar.

Mr.Sondhi has over three decades of experience in Manufacturing and Engineering based companiessuch as Ashok Leyland, JCBIndia ,Shriram Honda, Tata Steel and Tecumseh Products India, of which over two decades was as MD&CEO. He a strong and proven track record as a leader, and is a passionate hands-on professional.

Mr. Vipin Sondhi was the MD & CEO of Ashok Leyland and a Director on the Board of Switch Mobility, a fully owned subsidiary of Ashok Leyland set up to manufacture Electric Vehicles. Ashok Leyland is the 2nd largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles in India with an international footprint.

Prior to Ashok Leyland, he was MD &CEO of JCB lndia for over 13 years,and was a member of JCB’s global executive team. He led the JCB business, into five world class manufacturing plants situated in three locations, and established market leadership in the Construction Equipment Industry. JCB’s Made in India products were exported to over 100 countries cumulatively during his tenure. He also also a member of JCB’s Global Group Executive and also had charge of S.E.Asia and the Pacific.

He was appointed by the Government of India as the Chairperson of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Bhopal in December 2015. He has held the position of Vice President of the Society of Indian Automotive Manufacturers (SIAM) and Vice President of the Automotive Skill Development Council (ASDC).

A member of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) National Council, he is also the Chairman of CII’s National Mission on Technology, Innovation & Research and Chairman of CII’s National Committee on Future Mobility.

He serves on the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the BharatiyaYuva Shakti Trust; the BoT of The Ananta Centre and the BoT of the Sasakawa India Leprosy Foundation.

He was awarded the Confederation of India (CII) Young Manager’s Trophy in the year 2000; The Udyog Rattan Award by the Institute of Economic Studies in 2011; The CEO of the Year Award at CEO India Awards in 2014. He was also conferred with an Honorary Fellowship by the Centre for Excellence in Project Management (CEPM) in 2017 and The Economic Times ‘Most Promising Business Leader of Asia – Construction Equipment Industry in 2018-19.

Dr. Aishvarya Raj, CEO

Dr. A. Raj has been employed with the Quality Council of India (QCI) since 2015 and is currently posted as the CEO of NBQP after successfully setting up and running the ZED Division of QCI.

He has had an enthusiastic professional career of over 28 years, based on a PhD and Master’s Degree. He is also a Commerce Graduate from University of Delhi and a Certified Hospitality Educator.

Dr. Raj is a voracious trainer and has been intensely involved in training and development activities including Capacity Building programmes/webinars for various industry sectors at both national & international platforms & forums. He has represented QCI & presented papers at ASQ (Texas, USA), ARSO (South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Cameroon), IAQ/SAQ Shanghai (China), EoQ (Slovenia & Portugal), ICQEM (Spain), CSQ (Canada) amongst others. At the national level he has presented & showcased various initiatives of QCI at multiple forums & panel discussions including conclaves, investment summits, industry events of various State Governments apart from Capacity Building of Bankers of India under the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) initiative, reputed National Industry Chambers & Associations as well as at Supply Chain meetings of large Enterprises and OEMs. He has assisted in institutionalizing various benefits for MSME units through sustained engagement with the State Governments, RBI & Financial Institutions, Government e-Marketplace etc.

Formerly, Raj has been the Regional Head of a leading Technical University and also the Managing Director of an educational foundation. Raj has also trained and worked in managerial capacities with International Hospitality chains.

An avid traveller, Raj loves experiencing various cultures, cuisines and traditions and is fond of learning new languages.

Dr. Manish Pande, Director & Head

Dr. Manish Pande is Head PAD Division at QCI, leading flagship governmental and intergovernmental initiatives such as the India National Platform on Private Sustainability Standards, Voluntary Certification Scheme for Medical Plant Produce (VCSMPP), National GLP Cell (with the National GLP Compliance Monitoring Authority – NGCMA), etc. along with a host of other voluntary schemes administered under QCI. He was responsible for the international implementation of the Yoga Professional Certification Scheme. With a progressive experience of over 20 years in the field of conformity assessment, he has been responsible for  design and implementation of various private, voluntary and international standards along with providing technical support, assistance, and stakeholder management with numerous industry associations, and governmental and intergovernmental bodies.

Dr. Pande is an expert member of various technical committees and working groups of Schemes that are run by the Government of India and its associate bodies. He has conducted several audits for agriculture based standards such as Organic as per NPOP (India), NOP (USDA – USA), EU; Good Agriculture Practices (GAP), Round Table on Responsible Soy and forestry standards such as FSC and PEFC. In the past, he has worked with the Worldwide Fund (WWF) for Nature – India, SGS – a Swiss based MNC, and as independent consultant with the UNCTAD, FAO, and SAARC. He holds a Ph.D. in forestry from the Forest Research Institute, and has received a Gold Medal for Masters in Forestry.

An accomplished & tech savvy CXO level Business Transformation leader with 30+years’ of strong global work exposure across Manufacturing, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), NBFC, Banking & HR consulting. Track record of delivering significant business gains & entity-wide transformation programs using Digital as an enabler. Specialization in Lean, Six Sigma & Process Automation (including RPA, AI & ML).  Niche skill around trouble shooting & resolution with positive bottom-line impact. Deep experience ranging from devising tactical to strategic business solutions, driving innovation, executing organizational change, financial delivery & governance, nurturing & developing teams to contributing to diversity networks and social cause.

Rich exposure across multiple businesses/ functions, across geographies (UK, Africa, Europe & APAC).

Mr. Subroto Ghosh, Sr. Advisor (PPID HEAD)

An Industrial Engineer with management qualification, an Industry speaker on Transformation and a visiting guest speaker at top Engineering & Management institutions like IIT & IIM.

A strong champion of diversity – was the APAC Chair for Reach, Barclays Diversity & Inclusion program for people with disability& mental health.

Learning exposure:

  • Head – PPID, Quality Council of India – Jul’22 till date
  • Director & Head of Process Excellence, Barclays Bank (Barclays Global Service Centre)
  • Quality Leader, GE Money India
  • Black Belt, GE Capital Intl. Services
  • HR Consultant & Profit Centre Head, ABC Consultants
  • Industrial Engineer & Project Manager, GEEP Industries and LPS
Dr. Ramanand N. Shukla,Sr. Director & Head

Dr. Ramanand N. Shukla, is an accomplished professional with over two decades of leadership experience in Business Excellence, Quality, Food Safety, Environment, Occupational Health & Safety and Training with an expertise in developing assessment frameworks and conducting transformational assessments for various industry sectors including Defence sector.

A “Certified Examiner for Quality Management”, IMC Ramakrishna Bajaj National Quality Awards and “Senior Assessor” for CII Award for Food Safety, he has also been a Member of ‘Expert Group on Food Safety and Quality’, CII-FACE and a jury for various awards.

He holds a Doctorate in Environment Management and MBA in Marketing. 

He is a Certified Lead Auditor for ISO 9001 QMS, ISO 22000 FSMS and a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt. He is also an Assessor for ISO/IEC 17021 and ISO/IEC 17029. He has been a Tutor for ISO 9001 QMS Lead auditor courses and FSSAI Master Trainer for the Statutory Training of Food Safety Officers (FSOs).

Having trained over 3000+ professionals on quality, business excellence, ZED, food safety, auditing & assessments, he has a keen interest in policy, program implementation and impact evaluation.

Mr. Alok Jain is a Mechanical Engineer with Post graduation in Industrial engineering from Aligarh Muslim University. Having an experience of more than 25 years in Quality Assurance, Quality Management, TQM, Training & Capacity Building, International Relationship etc. he is empaneled as an evaluator with International Organizations like APLAC (now Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation), AFRAC (African Accreditation Cooperation), ARAC (Arab Accreditation Cooperation), SADCA (Southern African Development Community Cooperation in Accreditation, IAF (International Accreditation Forum) and ILAC (International Accreditation Cooperation). He has conducted evaluation of the Accreditation Bodies of Philippines, Korea, Thailand, USA, Malaysia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, UAE, Algeria, Botswana, Mauritius etc.

Mr. Alok Jain, Director & Head

His area of competence in the field of accreditation includes ISO/IEC 17011, ISO/IEC 17025, ISO/IEC 17020, ISO/IEC 17021, ISO/IEC 17043, ISO/IEC 17065 etc.

Adding to his repertoire of skills, he has directed various capacity building and promotional activities in Ethiopia, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar with the support of World Bank, UNIDO, PTB etc. on various accreditation standards including ISO 15189. Furthermore, he has represented India in the field of Accreditation at various international meetings.

Before taking on the responsibility as Head of Training and Capacity (TCB) Cell, Mr Jain has worked with QCI Board ‘NABL’ for about 20 years after spending considerable time in automotive sector where he was liable to execute tasks related to Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma, Quality Management System, Product certification etc.

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