New countries on ISO governing council
India has been elected to be a representative on the governing council of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) will represent India on the council.
In September, the election for places in the governing council took place in Geneva for seven vacancies. India, along with China, Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, Kenya and Tunisia were elected for two years, a term which begins in January 2008. India has been represented on the ISO governing council in previous years, in 2002 and 2003. The ISO governing council has 18 members in total.
Quality audit demands in India’s construction sector
The state government was called on to stop all infrastructure construction works and undergo a quality audit to ensure that they were safe for the public. Nara Chandrababu Naidu, leader of the government opposition, issued the demand last month. The call for a quality audit followed the collapse of a segment of highway flyover, which may have been caused by negligence.
Naidu also claimed that irrigation works were rife with corruption and, as a result, the estimated costs had gone up from 46,000 rupees to 136,000 rupees. He said the government was appointing only those officers to these projects who towed the Congress leaders’ line.
Spanish airline gets an A+ on quality
Iberia’s 2006 Corporate Social Responsibility Report was given an 'A+' by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), indicating the highest possible degree of compliance with the recommendations of the international body, which sets global standards for sustainability reports.
The information included in the report was also reviewed and verified by Spain's standards bureau, AENOR (Asociacion Espanola de Normalizacion y Certificacion).
According to the air carrier, the high mark reflects both Iberia’s responsible management practices and the quality and transparency of its published information.
In a related development, Iberia was recently confirmed as one of only three airlines to be included in the Dow Jones World Sustainability Index, having gained high marks in 22 of 23 categories and the higher marks in nine of these.
Three years ago Iberia joined the United Nations Global Compact, a framework for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption.
The company is also committed to other agreements such as the Protocol on Greenhouse Gases and to ISO standards.
