Thursday, Oct 13,2005
ENS ECONIMICS BUREAU

When you go to any supermarket or department store nowadays, you will come across attractively packed foreign goods piled up on the shelves. Is there any way to find out if these goods are really quality products? Is there any Indian agency monitoring the quality of these goods? The answer is a big no. Most of the consumers are buying these products because it has a ‘foreign’ tag. “I fear a potent evil in the form of substandard goods illegally getting marketed in India.” Says Bejon Misra, Chief executive officer, Consumer education organization.

Mr. Bejon Misra, CEO-VOICE

The only solution, according to Misra, is that government should monitor the import of products, check quality standards and not allow to sell the substandard products in the market. Misra complained that service industry was not doing its bit to satisfy the consumers. Citing the example of banking, telecom and insurance, which are growing at a rapid pace, Misra said, his organization, VOICE, is getting more customer complaints in these three sectors.

Service industry is wooing consumers with attractive advertisements and direct contact. But if you have any complaint to make, normally they won’t attend to it properly. “ Service industries, especially, banking, insurance and telecom, have to come out with a charter how they will serve the consumers.”