First, we would like for Consumer VOICE to go online, and to create spaces for our readers where we could have interactive exchange of information with them. Informed consumers, all over the world, are now returning to what has been a practice in India for as long as one can remember, which is, to make purchase decisions by interacting with like-minded people, who could be friends, family, or even actual users of similar products anywhere in the world, but NOW available on-line. With this practice coming back in vogue, the consumer scenario is all set to change radically. If the standards bodies want people to continue to put their faith in the information made available to them, they will have to allow space for "increased consumer involvement and scrutiny".

To build accountability and boost corporate responsibility towards consumers, we would like to set up networks with the industry and manufacturers to give our readers access to product suppliers. We would like to address all their complaints and queries online and be able to connect them to whosoever, to get speedy solutions. With their help, we would like to build pressure all around, to make all stakeholders accountable and transparently accessible. Government policy, Acts, provisions for consumer protection, ideally, should all be visible and reachable. People behind these should also be available to consumers. Product recall, and other such working concepts for the western consumers should become a reality for us too. Why, should we, the densest population of consumers, be deprived of our right to meaningful redress? We are constantly pushed and prodded to give up our rights to our way of life, our life skills and sustainable practices, in exchange for low-grade goods and services, as well as 'hand-me-downs' from our western counterparts. Even as they go organic and opt for 'slow-food', and patent our traditional practices and knowledge base, we continue to be brain-washed to mimic their obsolete and trashy lifestyle options. We are inundated with junk, and allow ourselves to be poisoned, and to acquire their disease profiles. We are vulnerable soft targets, because we 'believe' that what we get is worth getting. We at Consumer VOICE wish to gift our subscribers an understanding of 'worth' and 'quality'. We want to protect them from various onslaughts which are engineered to lighten their pockets and fill their lives with poor-quality hazardous stuff.
Consumer studies have pointed to several emerging trends. Amongst them, is the rapidly rising middle-class affluence, which is pushing urban consumers to become increasingly individualistic, demanding customised products and services. For a country like ours it is very important for standards bodies to recognise this shift, because India has been, and still is, a civilisation geared culturally and philosophically to nurturing individualistic aspirations. We have, for this reason, been able to free ourselves, even of confining fixities of religious beliefs and stretch our available spiritual options to suit individual metaphysical and physical needs. Our belief patterns allow us immense flexibility and give us freedom of choice even amongst the gods we worship. From our acknowledged mythic population of 33,000,000, we can pick and choose and target the right god, for whatever, we imagine, we need extra-terrestrial support for.

Our experiential resources are all about allowing us to lead healthy, seasonally-aligned, locally-supported lives. Why do we want to mess around with Chinese, Brazilian or American options which confuse and adulterate our existence. The choice and complexity of competitive markets with artificially-increased false choices, is no longer an acceptable option for discerning consumers, with less and less time available to them for shopping for their basic and daily needs.
The "individualistic and polarised societies" are also being gripped by a culture of fear and anxiety. As their information range stretches, their faith in the markets and standards bodies declines alongside.

Ironically it is technology which is the double-edged sword in consumer lives. Even as it strives to relieve tedium and make individualised lifestyles self-supportive, it simultaneously breeds a host of fears, specially in the food sector, where consumers are increasingly anxious and suspicious of the role of new technologies in food/production and marketing processes. Chemicalisation of the 'panch-tatva', whether it be our air, water, or soil, has engineered a direct assault on consumer health and fertility, thus undermining, jeopardising and compromising the 'feel good' factor, in what concerns our physical well-being and safety, mental health and emotional security. Technology without regulations and standards and in irresponsible hands threatens our sense of privacy and ultimately, individual freedom, freedom from fear...

"How extraordinary! The richest, longest-lived, best-protected, most-resourceful civilisation, with the highest degree of insight into its own technology, is on its way to becoming the most frightened"
In 2005, let us deal with our fears.

Aaron Wildavsky.