How a Rating System is Improving
Flay Ash Brick Quality in Bihar

A Fly Ash Brick Quality Rating System (FABQRS) was formulated and implemented in Bihar to effectively address the quality issues of fly ash bricks in the state. The objective of this system is to provide acceptable quality criteria for the production of fly ash bricks across the state. A pilot programme was designed to demonstrate the utility and effectiveness of FABQRS.

Development Alternatives (DA) acted as the certifying agency responsible for implementing the proposed FABQRS, by identifying, assessing and certifying fly ash brick enterprises as class A, B, C and D, based on four quality parameters: compressive strength, water absorption, efflorescence and dimensional tolerance.

Benefits for Entrepreneurs Enrolling in FABQRS

• As an incentive, six months of technical and non-technical support (production cost, profitability and market linkages) will be provided by the technical team of DA Group to B, C and D rated enterprises, to help them achieve A rating. Hence, with early enrolment, enterprises can avail technical support for longer durations and can fix their problems.

• After providing technical support to enrolled enterprises, ratings will be published on the website of BSPCB.

• Quality rating awards will be given to the top three entrepreneurs for quality production, in an award ceremony organised with the state government.

• Possible incentives will be given to A class entrepreneurs from the state government, so that they can upgrade their production capacity.

• Entrepreneurs can opt out of the programme at any point.

By August 2020, FABQRS was successfully demonstrated across the 23 districts of Bihar where a total of 80 enterprises were evaluated thus far. Since August 2019, 50 new enterprises have been enrolled under the system (See Map). The first round of sampling has been done for all new enrolled enterprises and testing and reporting has been done for 35 enterprises so far. Based on the test results as per FABQRS and BIS 12894:2002, grading was done and it is found that some entrepreneurs are making good quality of products but most are not making the required quality.

Assessment and onsite training were provided by the DA team to all 35 enterprises and it was found that entrepreneurs lacked information on the following:

• Raw material to be used: For instance, some were using portland pozzolana cement (PPC) instead of ordinary portland cement (OPC) and sand that was too fine for desirable strength. (Unlike OPC, PPC is manufactured using fly ash to the extent of around 15-35%).

• Proportion of raw material: Most of them were using varying amounts of fly ash, sand, cement and water in the mix design.

• Sequence of mixing materials in the pan mixer: More than 70% of the entrepreneurs used to start with fly ash, thereafter adding cement, followed by sand. As per the standard manufacturing process, the reverse sequence is to be followed.

• Ideal pressure to be maintained in the brick making machine: Some manufacturers were maintaining the pressure at 350 kg/cm2/brick, which is much less than the standard pressure (550-650 kg/cm2/brick).

• Standard size of bricks to be produced: Most were manufacturing bricks in moulds of more than 75 mm thickness, as against the desired thickness of 70 mm.

FABQRS Impact

Across the 23 districts of Bihar where FABQRS was demonstrated, evaluation was carried out for 24 enterprises, and it was in progress for the rest. After a thorough analysis of various challenges faced by fly ash brick entrepreneurs, support was provided for enhanced brick quality. The impact of this programme can be seen through the improvement in brick quality for 11 enterprises, and maintenance of quality for the others. This result highlights the overall success of the FABQRS programme, as evident from Graph 1 depicting the transition of enterprises from lower (C and B) to higher (B and A) quality rating.  ■

Graph 1: Impact of FABQRS

References

• https://www.oecd.org/greengrowth/GGSD_2018_SME%20Issue%20Paper_WEB.pdf

• http://unepinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/ Mobilizing_Sustainable_Finance_for_Small_and_Medium_Sized_Enterprises.pdf

• https://www.orfonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/ ORF_Special_Report_85_Financing_Green.pdf

• https://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs//PublicationReport/Pdfs/MSMES24062019465CF8CB30594AC29A7A010E8A2A034C.PDF

• https://www.giz.de/en/worldwide/10970.html

• https://www.devalt.org/images/L2_ProjectPdfs/JobsWeCreateMonograph.pdf?Oid=186

• https://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/notification/PDFs/70MD01082019962768ACF1A34069A6D1BF4252D38393.PDF

• https://msme.gov.in/sites/default/files/Up-Scaled-ESDP-Guidelines.pdf

• http://startupindia.gov.in/uploads/pdf/Notification%20related%20to%

Avinash Kumar
akumar1@devalt.org