{"id":3554,"date":"2025-03-20T11:50:03","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T06:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/?p=3554"},"modified":"2025-03-20T11:50:03","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T06:20:03","slug":"consumer-awareness-is-key-to-a-sustainable-and-secure-digital-experience-shri-pralhad-joshi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/?p=3554","title":{"rendered":"Consumer awareness is key to a sustainable and secure digital experience: Shri Pralhad Joshi"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Consumer awareness is key to a sustainable and secure digital experience: Shri Pralhad Joshi<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
Posted On: 18 MAR 2025 7:24PM by PIB Delhi<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
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Union Minister for Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Ministry for New and Renewable Energy, Shri Pralhad Joshi along with Mr. Joel Kaplan, Chief Global Affairs Officer, Meta announced a new collaboration \u2018Be an Empowered Consumer\u2019 to empower consumers through digital literacy initiatives under the government\u2019s flagship consumer awareness campaign\u00a0\u2018Jago Grahak Jago\u2019<\/em>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking at the launch of the partnership, Shri Joshi said, \u201cWe are pleased to partner with Meta on this crucial initiative to equip citizens with the knowledge and tools that will enable them to navigate the digital landscape and protect themselves online.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cConsumer awareness is key to a sustainable and secure digital experience and the campaign will strengthen consumer protection measures and reinforce our commitment to empowering Indian consumers,\u201d he added.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Shri Joshi emphasised that with the collaboration, the efforts of Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India, towards consumer protection will reach to the remote areas of the country.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The joint campaign \u2018Be an Empowered Consumer\u2019 seeks to educate Indians on recognizing online threats and promoting healthy online habits, including the use of strong passwords, verification of online information, and reporting suspicious activity. This was discussed in a meeting before the launch. \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

During the meeting, the Union Minister was also apprised about a joint project commissioned with IIT Bombay by the chair established by the Department at the National Law School of India University Bangalore, and supported by Meta.\u00a0 The project explores the feasibility of leveraging Llama 2, Meta\u2019s openly available large language model, in creating a citizen-centric chatbot: GrahakNyay. The chatbot will enhance access to consumer rights information, a robust grievance redressal tool that will help individuals file complaints and resolve queries more efficiently. The chatbot is now ready for a closed group beta testing and will be officially launched and integrated into DoCA\u2019s website once its testing is complete.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Smt. Nidhi Khare, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, present while addressing the event, said that the government remains steadfast in its commitment to upholding and safeguarding consumer rights. To make this commitment effective, it is important that consumers are aware of online threats and are able to perceive the unethical business practices, she said. Also, having right to have their grievances heard and addressed is essential for fostering accountability, transparency, and fairness. The chatbox will make it possible through the process of seamless complaint filing and resolution of queries, she stated.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Joel Kaplan, Chief Global Affairs Officer, Meta during the event said, \u201cWith technology progressing so quickly, it can be hard for people to stay up to date with the best ways to keep themselves safe online, which is why we\u2019re pleased to work with the Department of Consumer Affairs and contribute to India\u2019s digital consumer protection efforts. At Meta we think AI can help people protect themselves and be informed online consumers. By making AI more accessible, we hope to improve consumer awareness, streamline redressal processes, and equip people with the knowledge they need to make informed choices online.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The above initiatives are steps in direction of Department\u2019s efforts towards consumer protection and empowerment through enactment of progressive legislations and launching of technology driven programmes. With evolution of technology consumer has been rendered vulnerable to new forms of unfair trade and unethical business practices such as\u00a0misleading advertisements, Tele-marketing, direct selling, e-commerce\u00a0<\/em>etc.,\u00a0<\/em>thereby, requiring appropriate and swift executive interventions to prevent consumer detriment.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

To address the myriad and constantly emerging vulnerabilities of the consumers and to promote, protect and enforce the rights of the consumers, an executive agency, Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has been established under section 10 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. Section 18 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 empowers CCPA to protect, promote and enforce the rights of consumers as a class, prevent unfair trade practices, ensure no false or misleading advertisement is made and ensure that no person takes part in the publication of any advertisement which is false or misleading. \u00a0Additionally, under section 18 (2) (j) and (l), CCPA can issue safety notices to alert consumers against dangerous or unsafe goods or services and issue necessary guidelines to prevent unfair trade practices and protect consumers\u2019 interest respectively. As per section 19 of the Act, CCPA may, on receiving information or complaint or directions from central government or of its own motion, conduct or cause to be conducted a preliminary inquiry as to whether there exists a\u00a0prima facie\u00a0<\/em>case of violation of consumer rights or unfair trade practice or any false or misleading advertisement and if satisfied, it shall cause investigation to be made by the Director-General. Under section 20 and 21, CCPA has power to impose penalties up to 50 lakh rupees against such practices.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In this direction, CCPA has passed appropriate orders in the past against companies and online platforms, in addition to issuing advisories against illegal sale and facilitation of wireless jammers, sale of drugs without prescription, sale of car seat belt alarm stopper etc. Further, Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020 and Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements, 2022 were notified to make e-commerce platforms more transparent and accountable to consumers. The Department also published booklet on \u201cEndorsements know-hows for celebrities, influencers and virtual influencers on social media platforms\u201d. In addition to these, time and again, CCPA has issued guidelines to strengthen the legislative framework against unethical business practices in the form of Guidelines on Prevention of Dark Pattern 2023, Guidelines for the Prevention and Regulation of Greenwashing, 2024 and Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Misleading Advertisement in Coaching Sector 2024.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Now, this two-pronged approach \u2013 leveraging AI for consumer grievance redressal through GrahakNyay chatbox and enhancing digital literacy through \u2018Be an Empowered Consumer\u2019 campaign, marks a significant step in strengthening consumer rights in India.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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*****<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Consumer awareness is key to a sustainable and secure digital experience: Shri Pralhad Joshi Posted On: 18 MAR 2025 7:24PM by PIB Delhi Union Minister for Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Ministry for New and Renewable Energy, Shri Pralhad Joshi along with Mr. Joel Kaplan, Chief Global Affairs Officer, Meta announced …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3556,"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554\/revisions\/3556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}