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Tag: Business Standard

  • Citizens will need to abdicate their rights regarding small claims, opines Jehangir B Gai

    Why the new Consumer Protection Act is a Death Knell of Consumer Rights

     

    By Jehangir B Gai

     

    No matter how attractive or appealing something may look on paper, it is of no use whatsoever if it does not achieve its objective, and worse when it actually harms the very cause it is supposed to espouse. This is the case with the Consumer Protection Act 2019 which comes into effect from today, repealing the earlier enactment of 1986.

     

    Let us look at the existing scenario. The District Consumer Forum which till now had a pecuniary limit of Rs 20 lakhs, are mostly located in premises which are too small, especially in urban areas where the filing of cases is more and there is a scarcity of adequate space. Consequently, files are spilling over even in corridors, and there is hardly any place for movement. The Forum is manned by just one or maximum two clerks, who find it difficult to cope with the existing work load of accepting complaints, scrutinising them, preparing and despatching notices, accepting of deposits and investing the money during the pendency of appeals, issuing certified copies of orders, etc.

     

    Similarly, there is also a dearth of stenographers, and there is just one stenographer who has to sit on the dais during court hours to take dictation of daily proceedings of each case (known as the case roznama), and thereafter take dictation of judgments from the Presiding Officer as well as two members, Imagine the plight when there is just one steno between three persons. Consequently, judgments are invariably delayed, sometime by two to six months. Besides, when the steno proceeds on leave due to an illness or for some family occasion, the work of the forum comes to a grinding halt.

     

    This has resulted in a huge backlog of over 5.5 lakh cases at the District level. Hence even though the Act stipulates for cases to be decided within three months, or within five months if laboratory testing is required, the reality is that it take anything between four to ten years, and sometimes even longer for a consumer complaint to be decided, especially in urban cities.

     

    In this backdrop, imaging what will be the plight with a five-fold increase in the pecuniary jurisdiction. A case will now take anything from 15 to 25 years to get decided! Can a consumer who finds her/his fridge or television not working wait for such a long period for the case to get decided? Definitely not. The delays will lead to frustration, denial of justice, and consequently consumers will prefer to abandon their rights rather than fight for them. The new Act will thus be counter-productive and serve as a deterrent to the filing of consumer disputes, which in turn will be a boon to manufacturers, traders and service providers. Thus, under the garb of protecting the consumer, the Act will in fact subserve the interest of industrialists.

     

    When the original Consumer Protection Act was legislated in 1986, the procedure for enforcement of orders was the same method of application to execution of decrees of civil courts. This required the filing of a separate application before the Civil Court for attachment of property by the bailiff, publishing of newspaper advertisement for auction of property, etc. making it a tedious as well as costly procedure, and often not worthwhile for realising a paltry sum of compensation. In view of this experience, the Act was amended in 2003 to make recovery proceeding simpler by adopting the procedure laid down  for recovery of arrears of land revenue by the collector or other competent authority.

     

    The new procedure was very convenient and working well without putting the consumer to any further expense. Surprisingly, this procedure has been given the go-by and the old costly, tedious and time-consumer procedure of having to approach the civil courts for enforcement of orders has once again been made applicable to the proceedings under the new Consumer Protection Act.

     

    Since it was foreseeable that the new Consumer Protection Act would result in tremendous delays in securing justice, the Act provides for mediation. While mediation cannot be of much help in complaints pertaining to defective goods or services, it would be helpful in resolving cases where there are high claims for compensation such those dealing with medical negligence. Yet, extremely surprisingly, matters relating to proceedings in respect of medical negligence resulting in grievous injury or death cannot be referred to mediation as there is an express prohibition to do so.

    Besides, a consumer normally knocks on the doors of the consumer disputes redressal agencies only when all attempts to resolve a grievance have failed, so attempting a mediation is not likely to be effective, but will cause a further delay in proceedings. In fact, even under the Act of 1986, the consumer disputes redressal agencies had attempted mediation and settlement of disputes through Lok Adalats, but this was abandoned when it was found to be an exercise in futility, especially when about 80 per cent of the cases were against insurance companies whose officials did not even bother to attend the Lok Adalat, possibly due to the apprehension that there would be a CBI inquiry against an official for settling a claim which had previously been rejected. So mediation is not likely to be of much help, and the consumer would not be compensated for the harassment meted out to him.

     

    Conclusion:

    Considering the practical aspects of the capability of the members sitting in adjudication, the space constraints, the lack of manpower and other limitations, the new Consumer Protection Act will spell the death knell of the consumer movement and result in consumers abdicating their rights rather than go through with litigation for years together for grievances relating to small claims in respect of consumer durables and services.

    If the Act is to be implemented in its true letter and spirit, the government must set up more than one consumer disputes redressal tribunal in each district depending upon the workload so that cases get decided within the time-frame stipulated under the Act. Moreover, the government must also appoint competent persons for adjudicating consumer disputes, provide adequate space and accommodation, and sufficient staff and manpower to cope with the increased workload. Unless this is done, the consumer movement will be doomed to a disastrous failure.

     

    The author is an awardwinning consumer activist and a columnist with various publications including The Times of India and Business Standard. He has received the Government of India’s National Youth Award for Consumer Protection. His views here are personal. He can be reached jehangir.gai.columnist@outlook.in

  • Editorially, a series of articles have been commissioned, that chronicle the changes that the paper has witnessed, and has contributed to in the world of business and the economy at large

    Business Standard celebrates 40 years

    By A Correspondent

     

    On the eve of completion of 40 years of existence in India, Business Standard has started ‘Thought Leadership’ – a series of initiatives that have been planned around the landmark year. Editorially, a series of articles have been commissioned, that chronicle the changes that the paper has witnessed, and has contributed to in the world of business and the economy at large.

     

    Born as a single-edition newspaper in Calcutta in the year 1975, Business Standard has had an invigorating journey since then. Currently published from 12 centers all over India, Business Standard has become the first choice of serious business news followers in these past 40 years. The Business Standard stable consisting of the English newspaper, the website business-standard.com and Business Standard Hindi (which was launched in 2008 and is published from eight centres), has not only seen an extended reader base in India alone, but also has global footprint with a large number of readers in financial centres like New York and London, Dubai and Singapore.

     

    Business Standard has also released a new brand campaign. Through a series of simple, yet effective TV commercials, it portrays the role played by Business Standard in helping readers achieve their aspirations. These ads will be telecast in a focussed manner to reach a relevant audience. The TVCs will also be up on Youtube. The campaign spans digital and print as well.

     

    Business Standard, by bringing together a galaxy of experts and commentators from around the world, has always been acclaimed for its opinions and incisive analysis. With some of the most well-known commentators who contribute to the pages of Business Standard going on to take up influential roles in Government -Ashok Lahiri and now possibly Arvind Subramanian as Chief Economic Advisor and Subir Gokarn and Urjit Patel as Deputy Governor, RBI, for instance – thought leadership is not an empty rhetoric. Shankar Acharya and Nitin Desai, two former Chief Economic Advisors to the Government continue to write in the paper reinforcing our thought leadership.

     

  • The western region finals of the Business Standard Quiz will happen on Dec 7

    B-schoolers, professionals to compete in BS Quiz

    The first leg of the Business Standard Quiz will take place on December 7 in Mumbai.

     

    The quiz was taken to B-Schools across the country with over 200 colleges participating at an intra-college level. At the regional level, the quiz has been opened to corporate professionals as well. The other regional finals will be held in Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai – dates for which will be announced shortly.

     

    According to a communiqué, the quiz will see an elimination round which will be a pen-and-paper test followed by the semi finals and finals. The top three winners in each region shall receive attractive prizes. The quizmaster for the Business Standard Quiz will be Gaurav Sri Krishna, who contributes to the Strategist Quiz (in the newspaper) and has also authored a quiz book published by paper.

     

    Registration in teams of two is mandatory to participate in the quiz. For more information, call Mansi Singh at 022-24978456 Extn. 368; Email: mansi.singh@bsmail.in or look for ‘BS Conferences’ on Facebook.

     

  • Kotak Mahindra, the investment banker to the deal had also approached other personal care companies such as Godrej, Dabur and Marico for a potential transaction

    Shahs to drop Anchor’s oral care portfolio; Emami close to buying toothpaste brand

    By Kala Vijayraghavan & Sagar Malviya

     

    Mumbai-based consumer products Anchor Healthcare has had several rounds of discussions with the Kolkata-headquartered Emami to sell its oral care business, top officials close to the development said.

     

    Kotak Mahindra, the investment banker to the deal had also approached other personal care companies such as Godrej, Dabur and Marico for a potential transaction, added the officials.

     

    However, interest in Anchor’s only other brand outside of oral care, Dyna soap, was lacklustre, with buyers more interested in Anchor White toothpaste, Anchor Gel as well as a toothpowder and toothbrushes. When contacted, Atul Shah, promoter of Anchor, denied any sale plans. However, a senior executive at a domestic investment bank confirmed that the company has been sounding off various buyers.

     

    In early 2011, Business Standard had reported that the Shahs had plans to sell the entire consumer products business, lock, stock and Dyna. However, a banker privy to the proceedings pointed out that valuations of the business may have deterred the promoter family from selling in single transaction.

     

    The Shahs are expecting over Rs1,000 crore for the consumer business, added the banker. The company is estimated to have closed the year ended March 2012 with sales of Rs450-500 crore, said a research analyst covering the fast-moving consumer goods sector.

     

    Emami, for its part, has created a war-chest to fund acquisitions. In 2010, the board of the cosmetics and toiletries marketer had approved plans to raise long-term resources up to Rs2,000 crore through the issue of securities as well as to double the borrowing limit to Rs3,000 crore primarily to fund potential buys.

     

    In 2008, Emami had acquired Zandu Pharmaceuticals, but subsequently hasn’t had much luck with buyout attempts. Last year it lost out to Reckitt Benckiser in the race to buy Paras’ personal care business that includes brands such as Livon, Borosoft and SetWet. Early this year, Reckitt sold some of Paras’ personal brands to Marico in a deal that Emami too was keen on.

     

    “Emami will continue to explore avenues for inorganic growth, but we do not wish to comment on any speculations,” said NH Bhansali, CEO, finance, strategy & business development, Emami.

     

    In 1997, Anchor challenged multinational giants like Colgate and Hindustan Unilever by finding a unique proposition in a tough-to-differentiate category by launching a ‘vegetarian’ toothpaste. In the initial years, Anchor managed to grab a market share of close to 10 per cent in a highly-competitive market.

     

    In 2007, the Anchor group had sold an 80 per cent stake in the business of electricals to Japan’s Matsushita Electric Works – owners of the National and Panasonic brands – for Rs2,000 crore. Personal care became the family’s focus area. Soon after the sale of Anchor Electricals, the group bought Forhans, one of the country’s oldest toothpaste brands, from John Oak Remedies. However, the Shahs didn’t make much headway with Forhans, which does not figure amongst Anchor Healthcare’s brands on its website.

     

    Source: The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

     

  • The mood is upbeat at the three-day convention on media and entertainment that kicked off in Mumbai today

    Digital, growth mantras to drive agenda

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Asia’s largest convention in the business of entertainment, FICCI Frames 2012, will be held at The Renaissance, Powai in Mumbai from March 14 to 16. In its 13th year, Frames is a three-day global convention covering the entire gamut of media and entertainment ranging from films to broadcast, which includes television and radio, to digital entertainment, animation, gaming and visual effects.

     

    The Summitwill be inaugurated by Government of India’s Information & Broadcasting Secretary, Mr Uday Kumar Varma. Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman, Motion Picture Association of America will deliver the keynote address at the inaugural session. Japanis the partner country at FICCI Frames 2012 and will be present with a high-powered delegation comprising key stakeholders from the Japanese media and entertainment industry.

     

    Frames 2012 will present opportunities for business networking, lobbying, and creative and financial collaboration and partnerships. There will also be a series of workshops and master-classes that will be conducted by venerated global gurus who will be busy highlighting the way forward to the assembled delegates. Nearly 2,000 Indian and 800 foreign delegates are expected to attend the event.

     

    The Who’s Who of the Indian media and entertainment industry will join hands with the global industry leaders and experts to discuss and debate and to announce new initiatives at FICCI Frames 2012. Mark Hollinger, CEO, Discovery, Carolyn Everson, VP-Global Marketing Solutions, Facebook, Cameron Bailey, Co-Director Toronto International Film Festival, Bruce Beresford, Director of Oscar-winning movie Driving Miss Daisy, Silas Hickey, Regional Creative Director for Animation at Cartoon Network, Max Howard, Global Animation Consultant and Lecturer on Producing Independent Animated Feature Films for the International Markets, Oscar-winner Harvey Lowry, Hollywood’s Special Effects Guru, and John Bashford, Vice Principal, LAMDA (The London Academy of Music & Dramatic Arts) are some of the globally well-known names who will be delivering keynote addresses, conducting workshops and master classes, and joining the panel discussions in various sessions at Frames.

     

    Other eminent speakers from the world of television, radio and print that would be present include television czarina Ekta Kapoor, Barkha Dutt and Vikram Chandra of NDTV, Sunil Lulla of Times TV, and Puneet Goenka of ZEEL. Print will be represented by Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief of the Indian Express Group and T.N. Ninan, Editor of Business Standard.

     

    Bollywood too would be adequately represented through eminent faces such as Yash Chopra, Karan Johar, Vidya Balan, Kamal Haasan, Imtiaz Ali, Anurag Kashyap, Farah Khan and Zoya Akhtar.

     

    The theme of this year’s event is ‘Embracing the Digital World’. Dr J S Sarma, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and Mr Uday K Varma, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, will identify and address immediate areas for successful implementation of the digital switchover and also on what’s next in the regulatory and market framework to enable and sustain the transition.

     

    The move to embrace digitization in Cable and Satellite TV services has become imperative as such services have grown exponentially inIndiain the last 17 years. A separate session at FICCI Frames 2012 will deliberate on ways to maximize the power of digital distribution. Industry leaders will share their experiences with Frames delegates, their perspectives on how funding challenges have been overcome in other jurisdictions and the takeaways forIndia. The panelists include Vivek Couto, Founder, Media Partners Asia; Anshuman Mishra, MD, Turner International India; Vikram Chandra, CEO, NDTV; Jagi Mangat Panda, CEO, Ortel; Prof Jonathan Askin, Professor of Law, Brooklyn School of Law, Former Senior Legal Advisor, FCC; Anita Wallgren, US Department of Commerce.

     

    The FICCI-KPMG study on Indian Media & Entertainment for 2012 will also be released on the occasion. Strong growth in tier 2 cities, the continued march of regional media and the rapidly expanding new media business helped the media and entertainment industry log a 12 per cent increase in revenues to Rs729 billion in a troublesome 2011, according to the report. Overall, the industry is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15 per cent to Rs.1,457 billion by 2015.

     

    Further details on the event will be available at: http://ficci-frames.com/

     

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare on primetime news and in the papers

    Need to relook at aid

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    In a total break from television, let’s look at today’s newspapers and some thought-provoking opinion pieces. On The Times of India’s edit page, Ramesh Thakur looks at the conundrum of foreign aid which helps the donor more than the recipient. The issue has popped up again with the British media replaying Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s year-old comment that the aid which India gets from Britain is “peanuts”.

     

    Thakur discusses how aid can often be crippling to a country trying to pick itself out of a crisis and what is most required is not handouts but forcing governments to perform. The Africa experience with aid has been much discussed and certainly no continent has suffered as much. Pakistan is also paying the price of too much and not even home-grown development.

     

    When India tried to stop aid from Britain, it was the British agencies which asked for the aid to continue. The call in Britain is to use that money internally, needed in times of cutbacks. It would make good sense perhaps for the governments of India and Britain to relook at aid to India. If we don’t need it and they do, why should we still take it?

     

    **

     

    In the Business Standard late last week, Mihir Sharma argued that contrary to popular belief, Indian governments give too many handouts to the rich and middle classes (“Handouts for the well-heeled”). It’s a well-argued piece, bolstered by facts, which should prove a shocker to middle class thinkers and people who usually see the poor as some undeserving, greedy, grasping lot who are a burden to the exchequer.

     

    **

     

    Sundeep Sengupta on the Hindu’s edit page puts into perspective how far India has strayed from its earlier stand on climate change and the consequences of conceding so much ground in Durban. Climate change no longer seems to be a hot ticket as far as the Indian media is concerned but that doesn’t make it any less important!
    Another subject which hasn’t perhaps been adequately discussed is the situation in Syria, especially from the Indian point of view. Krishnan Srinivasan, former Indian foreign secretary, has a look at the war-like situation in Syria and examines the role of UN sanctions.

     

    **

     

    Since it is Valentine’s Day, the Deccan Chronicle has looked at it seriously. Novelist Charu Nivedita questions whether India can know real love, hampered as it is by convention!

     

    On which note…

     

  • Business Standard has extended its digital presence with the launch of its new iPad application.

    Business Standard joins the iPad gang

    By Akash Raha

     

    Business daily newspaper Business Standard has extended its digital presence with the launch of its new iPad Application. Attracting readers for its business content, Business Standard has translated this phenomenon into a very strong presence on the web with over a million unique visitors from around the world accessing its website. According to Business Standard sources, a fifth of its online visitors are from outside India. A mobile website that can be accessed on most handsets has also been providing news feeds on the go to readers for a while now.

     

    Talking about the development, Arun S Natesh, Head – Marketing, Business Standard, said, “To cater to the fairly evolved, widely travelled and tech savvy Business Standard readers’ requirements, and to keep pace with the emerging content consumption landscape, an iPad application has been designed keeping their interests in mind. The BS iPad application chooses to focus on the selection of key breaking stories, incisive analyses and insightful opinion in an easy-to-navigate, clutter-free format.”

     

    A highlight of the app is its coverage of stock market information. Readers can access stock price information, charts and news on India’s top 500 companies through a simple search. The app also features videos on top business events of the day and updates on the stock market. Sharing stories on social and professional networks apart from emailing is a one-click exercise.

     

    The app can be downloaded for free from the App Store, and is optimized for iOS4 and above. The Business Standard iPad App can be downloaded at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/business-standard/id482532990?ls=1&mt=8

  • In addition to heading the newspaper's editorial team in Mumbai, Mr Majumdar will also be responsible for the editorial administration of the Web, Magazines and Books editorial teams.

    BS elevates Shyamal Majumdar to Exec Ed

    By A Correspondent

     

    Business Standard has elevated Mr Shyamal Majumdar as Executive Editor. In addition to heading the newspaper’s editorial team in Mumbai, Mr Majumdar will also be responsible for the editorial administration of the Web, Magazines and Books editorial teams… he will be the editorial interface with the business departments for these operations, an internal communication said.

  • Celebration of Hindi Diwas by Business Standard Hindi, promoting the use of the language in business.

    Business Standard celebrates use of Hindi in biz

    By Akash Raha

     

    Business Standard Hindi recently celebrated Hindi Diwas and activated the initiative which was aimed at promoting the use of Hindi language in business parlance. This initiative of Business Standard is going to commence at the end of this month. The tag line for this initiative is “Behtar Business woh, jo aapke bhaasha mein ho!”

     

    Speaking on necessity and efficacy of spreading the business language in Hindi, Mr Arun Natesh, Head-Marketing, Business Standard said, “This initiative was important as there are a lot of people in the country do their business in Hindi, because that is the language of the masses. But inspite of that, there are a lot of words and terminologies that people use that is not easily understandable as it lacks homogeneity. So the idea is to promote business terminology and language in Hindi. Since our newspaper gives them comprehensive information on business, our initiative empowers them in understanding the effective terminology of use.”

     

    For this initiative, they compiled a special pullout which looked at the usage of the Hindi language online, in mobile and the growing interest globally for the language by the likes of Microsoft and Google.

     

    As a part of this initiative Business Standard organized quizzes testing knowledge of business terminology. Enthusiastic participation was seen across Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow, Patna, Bhopal, Raipur and Kolkata. Business Standard went to the premises of organizations like SBI, LIC, Allahabad Bank, NABARD, BHEL, Bhilai Steel Plant, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank etc.

     

    Business Standard, in Hindi, reaches out to small and medium entrepreneurs, traders, small investors etc. Keeping this focus, the paper itself is designed around meeting this need by adding locally relevant content. Business Standard also brings to the reader what its editorial team is famed for – incisive and in-depth analysis of events. In recent times, the paper has strengthened the coverage of local commodity information immensely benefiting the large trading community.