Food Minister K V Thomas today said he is hopeful of passage of the FCRA amendment bill in the ongoing session of Parliament even as proceedings of the house have been disrupted due to coal issue.

The Forward Contract Regulation Act (Amendment) Bill, if passed, will give more powers to sectoral regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC) and allow a new category of products like options and indices. The bill is considered vital for the development of futures trade.

"We are waiting for Parliament to come to normal functioning. We are prepared and hopeful of passage of the FCRA bill in the current session. There are crucial bills to be passed in Parliament," Thomas told reporters on the sidelines of a BIS event here.

The proceedings of Parliament have been disrupted since the start of the second part of Budget session on April 22 due to various issues including coal scam.

Industry experts said that early passage of the bill is necessary to bring in much-needed reforms and boost the commodities futures market.

The bill was first introduced in Lok Sabha in December 2010. Later, the Cabinet cleared the FCRA amendment bill in October last year. It is yet to be passed in Parliament.

At present, the country has five national and 15 regional commodity exchanges with a combined turnover of Rs 170.46 lakh crore in 2012-13 fiscal.

Earlier, Thomas after presenting the 'Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Awards 2011' called upon domestic companies to give top-most priority to "quality" as the strength of the Indian economy would depend on quality services and products manufactured in the country.

Indian companies should put themselves to quality tests voluntarily if they want to face global competition, he said.

The Quality Awards, instituted by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), are given for meeting quality challenges in domestic and international market.

Nokia Siemens Networks and R Systems International Ltd were winners of 2011 quality awards under the large scale industry category, while Technocrat Connectivity Systems under small scale industry section.

Himachal Pradesh-based ACC Senior Secondary Public School grabbed the best of all award for 2011. Ten industries received commendation certificates from BIS.