National Accreditation Bodies Operating in India

NABL is India’s primary and most widely recognized accreditation body for testing and calibration laboratories. It is a constituent board of the Quality Council of India (QCI), which operates under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. NABL was originally established in 1988 and has since grown to accredit over 8,500 laboratories across India.

NABL’s accreditation system is built on ISO/IEC 17011 and it accredits bodies under ISO/IEC 17025 (testing and calibration laboratories), ISO 15189 (medical laboratories), ISO/IEC 17043 (proficiency testing providers), and ISO 17034 (reference material producers). It covers all major disciplines including Biological, Chemical, Electrical, Mechanical, Non-Destructive Testing, Photometry, Thermal, and Forensics.

NABL is a signatory to the Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) of both the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and the Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (APAC). This means test reports from NABL-accredited laboratories are accepted in member economies internationally, reducing duplication and supporting trade. In October 2024, NABL extended its accreditation validity period from 2 years to 4 years (with annual surveillance), making the process more practical for laboratories.

For testing laboratories in India — particularly those working on government projects, infrastructure, or construction quality testing — NABL accreditation remains the gold standard and is often a mandatory requirement for project eligibility.

🌐 nabl-india.org

QAI is a private limited company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 in India. It was established in 2017 and has rapidly grown into a recognized international accreditation body operating across two distinct verticals: the Centre for International Accreditation (CIA) for testing, calibration, and medical laboratories, and the Centre for Accreditation of Health and Social Care (CAHSC) for healthcare facilities.

On the laboratory side, QAI-CIA accredits testing, calibration, and medical laboratories as per ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO 15189. It has achieved global recognition through APAC and ILAC MRA signatories for both testing and medical laboratory accreditation. QAI is also the first accreditation body in India to achieve ISQua EEA Accreditation — a significant international distinction for healthcare accreditation bodies — achieved in under five years of operations.

On the healthcare side, QAI-CAHSC offers 14 specialized accreditation programmes covering hospitals, ambulatory care, dialysis centres, home care, ART/IVF centres, stroke care, telehealth, rehabilitation centres, and more. QAI accreditation is recognized by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare under the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) for incentive-based empanelment.

QAI is particularly notable for filling gaps in the Indian accreditation landscape — launching programmes that did not previously exist, and focusing on smaller, specialized healthcare and diagnostic facilities that larger bodies did not adequately serve.

🌐 qai.org.in

FDAS is a non-profit, non-government organization registered under the Haryana Registration and Regulation of Societies Act on 27 March 2019. Its headquarters are in Gurugram (Gurgaon), Haryana. FDAS was founded with a clear purpose: India has hundreds of thousands of small and large testing laboratories that need accreditation, and a single government body cannot serve them all at the pace the economy demands. FDAS was established to supplement existing efforts and accelerate the culture of accreditation across the country.

FDAS operates its accreditation management system in compliance with ISO/IEC 17011:2017 and provides accreditation to testing, calibration, and medical laboratories under ISO/IEC 17025:2017 and ISO 15189:2022. It also covers inspection bodies, proficiency testing providers, and reference material producers. In 2023, FDAS achieved two major milestones: it became an APAC MRA Signatory on 16 June 2023 and an ILAC MRA Signatory on 28 August 2023 — confirming global equivalence for FDAS-accredited laboratories.

FDAS represents a new generation of accreditation bodies in India — agile, mission-driven, and focused on bringing accreditation within reach of the vast number of smaller laboratories that form the backbone of India’s quality infrastructure.

🌐 fdasindia.org