Piyush Goyal inaugurates packaged drinking water testing facility at Ghaziabad

On 19 December 2021, Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and Textiles, inaugurated the packaged drinking water test facility at the National Test House (NTH) in Ghaziabad.

Goyal praised NTH’s leading scientists for taking a technological leap to improve quality evaluation and assurance. According to Goyal, quality control, quality assessment, and quality assurance must be world-class if India is to be acknowledged for its dependability in international markets.

“If we have to make India truly a global power, if we have to show to the world our strength, our capabilities, if we have to do mutual recognition agreements, we will have to be world-class in our laboratory testing facilities, our people will have to be well trained, our equipment will have to be the best available in the world,” he said, reported in ANI.

With the inauguration of two equipment – Ultra-High-Performance Liquid Chromatograph (UHPLC) and Ion Chromatograph (IC), NTH-Ghaziabad has added a feather in a comprehensive quality testing facility for water. UHPLC is helpful for the quantification of different organic compounds, especially residual pesticides in Drinking Water samples.

Calling for a transformational change, Goyal said, “We have a long way to go” in building quality assurance as the government promotes new technology such as Technical Textiles where NanoTech is a critical element.

“Don’t look at incremental improvements anymore, should be a quantum leap in technology,” he said, adding, “Can we make a difference? Can we revolutionize our testing system? Nothing short of a revolution is required.”

Stressing on Prime Minister’s principle of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas’, Goyal said, “We should test the goods in such a way that they carry zero defect and your testing shall be acceptable worldwide.”

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s working style, I’m sure you’ve all seen in the last few years, he doesn’t settle for second best – when we take a program or a project, it should be the best. And that is how we will become acceptable to the world, that is how the world will trust us, that is how we will be able to get the goodwill of and the confidence of the people of India.”

NTH (NR), Ghaziabad is equipped with facilities of drinking water, transformers, household appliances, LPG gas stove, pressure cooker, impulse voltage test of transformers, thereby serving the interest of consumers by quality assurance practices.

With the inauguration of two equipment, NTH-Ghaziabad has added a valuable testing facility for water. The equipment UHPLC will be helpful for quantification of different organic compounds, particularly residual pesticides in water samples, whereas IC will be used for quantification of different anions, particularly bromate in packaged drinking water.

NTH is working in close coordination with BIS, especially in formulating various types of standards. All the NTH Labs, including Ghaziabad, have been integrated with the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) of BIS, a comprehensive online system developed for managing the working of the BIS recognized labs via an integrated and centralized integration workflow management system.

All NTH labs, including Ghaziabad, have been mapped on the ‘Parakh’ portal, a geographic information system (GIS) based Unified Laboratory Network developed by DPIIT. The portal makes it possible to search labs for a particular product, standard, test method in a state or a city and would facilitate transparency in the testing activities.

The activities of NTH (NR), Ghaziabad cover six major disciplines, namely chemical, civil, electrical, mechanical, non-destructive testing (NDT) and rubber-paper-plastic and textile (RPPT) with state-of-the-art machines to test the raw materials and products from manufacturing industries, small scale industries, government departments and vigilance and judicial authorities viz court cases, CVC, CBI, police department etc. The laboratory is also open to common people to satisfy their requirements.

Soon NTH (NR), Ghaziabad will have the latest facilities for short circuit test for transformers, residual current circuit breaker (RCCB) test, food testing, lithium (Li) ion battery testing for electric vehicles, helmet test and advance building material tests.