Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Pralhad Joshi launched key initiatives for the protection of Consumer Rights on the National Consumer Day today.
‘Jago Grahak Jago App’, ‘Jagriti App’, and ‘Jagriti Dashboard’, ‘e-Mapp’ portal for all services Legal Metrology Services, AI-enabled NCH 2.0, and SMART Standards were launched on the occasion.
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National Consumer Day is dedicated to acknowledging the rights and needs of consumers and highlighting the significant strides the department has made in protecting and empowering consumers over the past year.
The theme for this year’s National Consumer Day is “Virtual Hearings & Digital Access to Consumer Justice”, reflecting the commitment to enhancing consumer welfare through innovative solutions and transparent redressal systems.
Speaking on the occasion, the minister said that virtual hearings of grievances is giving consumers digital access to justice and this reflects the commitment of Prime Minister Narender Modi in ensuring efficient and accessible justice to the consumers.
He emphasised the achievements of the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) in the past years for the protection of consumer interest through its class actions suits and actions.
Some of the milestone achievements mentioned by him included: refund of Rs 1454 cores by travel companies to consumers affected due to cancelled flight tickets due to COVID-19 lockdown after the CCPA took action against them and the action taken against 45 coaching centers across the nation for misleading advertisements.
Mr Joshi appreciated the action taken by the CCPA against surrogate advertisements by issuing 13 notices to the companies. He further appreciated the policy work done by the CCPA by releasing the guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Greenwashing and Misleading Environmental Claims, 2024 and Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Misleading Advertisement in Coaching Sector 2024 in the year 2024.
He also congratulated the CCPA for issuing Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023 and taking actions against the dark pattern.
Mr Joshi recognised the evolving threats to the consumer on the E-commerce portal and stated that India by reaching 950 million has become the second largest e-commerce user. He congratulated the Department for enacting the Consumer Protection E-commerce Rules, 2020 and taking proactive actions and launching initiatives for the protection of consumers on e-commerce.
