Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Textiles and Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal announced the launch of several initiatives with an aim to improve grievance redressal and consumer protection in India. Meanwhile, the National Consumer Helpline has witnessed a remarkable increase in the number of calls received from 10,000 in 2013 to 1,32,209 till November this year. The Department of Consumer Affairs celebrated the National Consumer Day 2023 with a focus on leveraging technology for consumer protection and grievance redressal.
On National Consumer Day this year, which was on December 24, Union Minister Piyush Goyal announced the following initiatives to benefit Indian consumers:
Inauguration of e-JAGRITI portal for consumer commissions
Inauguration of Video Conferencing Facility for National
Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission
Inauguration of Drone certification facility at National Test House
Inauguration of National Consumer Helpline 2.0
Inauguration of new laboratories at National Test House
Exchange of MoU between National Test House and Regional
Reference Standard Laboratory for mutual collaboration In EV (testing)
Following the inaugural event, a technical session was organised on the themes of “Artificial Intelligence & the protection of consumer rights”, “Role of technology in speedy disposal of consumer cases” and “Impact of Dark Patterns on Consumer choices & preferences”.
Applauding the new initiatives of the Department, the minister stated that the launch of the e-Jagriti portal, Video Conferencing Facility for National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, drone testing in National Test House, National Consumer Helpline 2.0 in 17 languages, and a 13-fold increase in calls exemplify the Indian government’s efforts to build consumer trust, while new Quality Control Orders reflect positively on the quality of goods in the market.
He also spoke about how India, by implementing proactive measures and monetary and fiscal policies in collaboration with the Department of Consumer Affairs, has succeeded in controlling food inflation. The Minister also appreciated the department’s establishment of 140 new Price Monitoring centres making it a total of 550 price monitoring centres that monitor and analyse indicative price thereby preventing consumers from food inflation. He also spoke about how the department has made tomato and onion along with Bharat Dal and Bharat Atta available to consumers at a subsidised price, thereby demonstrating the Government’s commitment to protecting consumers from inflation.
At the event, Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi, President of National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission emphasised the importance of ‘Upbhokta Devo bhava’ and the need for widespread consumer protection across the nation. He suggested that the e-filing of cases should be accessible to every corner of the country, ensuring that even technologically challenged consumers can utilise it to file cases through e-daakhil.
