The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : "e-trading has long way to go" Issues of e-commerce in India highlighted

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Sunday, Mar 18, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

"e-trading has long way to go" Issues of e-commerce in India highlighted

Special Correspondent

CAG report on `Protecting Online Shoppers' released

CHENNAI: The system of e-commerce has a long way to go before it becomes a reliable means of buying products and services in India, Consumer and Civic Action Group trustee and advocate N.L. Rajah said on Saturday.

Releasing a CAG report on `Protecting Online Shoppers' on the occasion of World Consumer Rights Day, he said there were many illegal practices in online trading in India. Not least among them were issues of privacy, details of overall price, warranty, providing proof of purchase and a forum for buyers to register complaints.

Another study done by the CAG on potential trade on the Internet and e-commerce websites had showed that 73 per cent of them allowed several modes of payment, only 7 per cent offered guarantee for products sold and 60 per cent had no mechanism to register complaints. There were very few redress mechanisms, and even their implementation was not enforced. The number of cases (e-fraud) that the Central Bureau of Investigation had registered was less than 50, and only one had reached the prosecution stage. The lack of experience of cyber forensic specialists compounded the problem, Mr. Rajah said.

The report released on Saturday contained a set of recommendations to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Distribution, which had supported the study.

Arjun Rajagopal, Chief of Medical Staff, Sundaram Medical Foundation, delivered a lecture on this year's Consumer Rights Day theme: `Unethical Promotion of Drugs.' Expanding the ambit of his talk to include health care services, Dr. Rajagopal defined ethical practice as "actions based on the ideas of right and wrong."

Drugs and other health care services were being pitched to two groups of people: medical professionals and the consumers or patients directly. The effectiveness of a new drug or diagnostic procedure and its safety aspects should be the criteria for prescription, Dr. Rajagopal said. Rational promotional tactics should be used. A new initiative, `Pharma-free,' had been launched among some doctors. It focussed on saying no to any interaction with pharmaceutical company representatives. The greater danger, however, was in the increasing practice of selling directly to patients.

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