E-commerce and mobile technologies are welcome and sky is the limit for their growth, provided they take along consumers, instead of trying to benefit from consumer ignorance” stated Shri Hem Pande, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Govt of India during his valedictory address in the workshop organized by Consumer Voice, at India Habitat Center, New Delhi today to release of white papers based on the results of a study on the advent of mobile and its impact on consumer behaviour in India. He further announced that the Consumer Protection Amendment Bill is under active consideration of government to address new challenges and consumer concerns and hope to get is passed soon.

Giving the background of the study Mr. Ashim Sanyal, COO of Consumer Voice said, “The increasing popularity of the mobile internet in India makes it important to investigate how the move to mobile is likely to affect Indian consumers and businesses. Mobiles have become the easiest and most cost effective medium to reach out to largest number of Indian consumers by advertisers, government agencies, political, commercial and social organizations.”

In the workshop, Consumer Voice shared the results of their study in the form of two papers:
“Study of Mobile Internet Use in India” and “Search Options available to Indian users”. Some of the findings presented by Hemant Upadhaya (Advisor VOICE) of the study reveal:

• App use in India has outpaced global growth; Indians use a relatively high proportion of apps compared to other countries, with analysts finding that average mobile usage grew by more than 131% between 2014 and 2015.
• There is an increased growth of vertical apps. Consumers now search for products and services across
  different apps and there is no one dominant search option.
• Emergence of hyperlocal apps that are enabling a fast and convenient experience for users
•  Social media sites have emerged as the largest use case and the entry point for users
•  Mobile advertising is growing but more importantly the innovations in this space are enabling quick decision making for customers.

The presentation was followed by a panel discussion and a Q/A session. The panel consisting of Mr. Arvind Kumar-Advisor TRAI, Mr.Saurabh Khurana-Tata Teleservices, Mr. Himanshu Periwal from IXIGO; Mr. Ashish Pandey from Yes Bank and Mr.Anmol Sahni ,IMRB International.

Mr. Arvind Kumar Advisor TRAI said that TRAI’s main mandate is to protect consumers and there is need of regulation over and above the market competition to ensure better services to the consumers. He told that TRAI is aware of the growth of apps and will take necessary steps for consumer protection, if required.

The other panelists also opined that mobile and specialized apps have become a tool to better understand and cater to the need of consumers but for the growth of the sector lies in consumers’ confidence, trust, quality of services and convenience. The workshop was attended by more than 50 participants from Telecom Industry, E-commerce, App developer fraternity, Telecom Operators, Market Research Agencies and Academicians.

For more information please contact: (Please find more details on workshop in the attached abstract)
Mr. Hemant Upadhyay (Advisor IT)
M:91+9811101961;Email; huconsumervoice@gmail.com
Consumer VOICEE-34 East of Kailash,New Delhi -110065
Ph: 011-47331023
www.consumer-voice.org