National Consumer Day will be celebrated tomorrow with ‘Virtual Hearings and Digital access to Consumer Justice’ as its theme and the launching of a slew of key initiatives for consumer rights protection. Union Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Pralhad Joshi, will deliver the inaugural address and also launch these initiatives on the occasion.
A Safety Pledge will be signed by the top executives representing 13 e-commerce platforms belonging to Reliance Retail group, Tata sons group , Zomato and Ola and Swiggy. Their support and agreement to abide by the safety pledge will go a long way in ensuring protection of consumer rights.
“Jago Grahak Jago App,’ ‘Jagriti App,’ and”Jagriti Dashboard” apps would be launched to protect Consumers from the Dark Pattern. These Apps would equip the Department of Consumer Affairs with means and resources to identify dark patterns on e-commerce platforms and is soon going to empower consumers with these tools. These are part of an intelligent cyber-physical system, which operates in real-time and runs on the Airawat AI Supercomputer under the National Supercomputing Mission for AI and Data Analytics. This innovative system analyses existing text and design elements on e-commerce platforms to determine whether they are being used to influence consumer psychology.
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‘e-Mapp’ portal for all services Legal Metrology Services will also be launched which is a unified digital platform to integrate State Legal Metrology portals into a single national system. This initiative streamlines licensing, verification, and registration processes for businesses, reduces compliance burdens, and promotes transparency. e-Maap aims to enhance ease of doing business, support consumer rights, and enable data-driven governance. This would enhance ease of doing business for the industry, provide information to the consumers and provide seamless interaction amongst the Controllers of Legal Metrology of various States
AI- enabled NCH 2.0 will also be launched. Artificial Intelligence has become a new normal across jurisdictions. It becomes imperative to adapt the innovative facilities and solutions offered by AI, as these will go a long way in empowering consumers. Department has revamped its National Consumer Helpline Portal, incorporating advanced features and thereby offering enhanced functionality, improved navigation and faster grievance resolution.
It also features multilingual support and AI-powered chatbots, ensuring a seamless and inclusive experience for consumers across the country.
SMART Standards from 2025: Traditionally standards are written in word processing documents and then converted into PDF with the focus on HUMANS as primary users. While these standards are great for reading, it’s difficult for computers to understand. In today’s digital landscape, the systems and machines are becoming more complex, more intelligent, capable of learning and adapting. Hence the standards shall also evolve into Machine-readable. Smart Standards are designed to be easily understood by both humans and machines. They are Interactive: Navigate easily, find specific information quickly, Intelligent: Search across multiple sources, extract relevant requirements and Dynamic: Access cross-references and related content instantly.
The Organic Food Testing Laboratory will be inaugurated at National Test House, Guwahati and low voltage switchgear testing facility at National test House, Mumbai. Also, a software testing facility for weighing and measuring instruments will be dedicated at regional reference standard laboratory, Ahmedabad to the nation.
There will be an exchange of MoU between the Legal Metrology department and Gujarat Law University for collaboration in areas of mutual interest and various e-books and submission of reports will be launched.
The importance of “digitisation” and “virtual delivery of justice” is ingrained in this year’s agenda. Along with being committed to highlighting the importance of digital delivery of justice to consumers, the government is eager to promote the spirit of sustainability, by going for digital stationery. Further, on this consumer day, the importance of the theme is also reflected in the topics of the three technical sessions.
The topics of discussion this year will be; “Health washing and how it affects consumer choices”, “Ensure effective execution of Consumer Commission orders” and “E-Jagriti/Virtual hearings: Towards efficient, hassle free and cost-effective justice delivery system”.
