Start this Start up!

Life has become so much better as compared to the early 90’s. This is realized, but not remembered and talked about, as much as it should be. Back in the early 90’s, an internet connection was still an expensive proposition, unless you visited the net café. The quality and range of automobiles was probably a tenth of what’s on offer today. A whole range of products and services were simply unavailable.

That’s the good part. The flip side is that the quality of service has not kept pace. Or may be its just the fact that as a consumer our demands and expectations have reached a new level. As we get more and more integrated in the world economy and as we travel all across the world, we expect a product and service quality to keep pace with the best in the world. One peculiarity, in India, is the fact that Indians also expect the best of service at the lowest of price possible. This poses significant challenges to the corporate enterprise, of course.

There are some commercial enterprises that have managed to pander to the demands of the Indian consumer. But these are few and far between. On the whole, commercial enterprises in India are taking the consumer for a ride. The violations are on numerous fronts- legal, service/product quality, over charging, mis-leading advertisements etc etc. Redressal mechanisms in India have still not evolved to the degree they should. Sure we have the consumer forums and other judicial means of redressal. But have they really managed to be effective in terms of Preventing consumer grievances and Redressing the existing ones. Has the Government done enough to ensure that a sound regulatory and monitoring framework is created so thatcommercial enterprises do not start taking advantage of the consumer, in the first place? We think not.

So we decided to do some thing about it. We believe that consumers in India desperately need a forum, which will help them reach out to the manufacturer/service provider instantly and also to other consumers. We believe that the latter functionality will especially help the commercial enterprises to take notice of the issue and redress an issue. To be clear, ‘Consumer is King’ will only provide a space, for both parties, to interact and then, hopefully, resolve their dispute offline. We do not believe in victimizing the commercial enterprises, for the sake of it. In fact,we would also like consumers to post product/service recommendations/ good experiences they have had. The section on product/service reviews (to aid fresh purchases, for readers out there) would go a long way, in this regard. You don’t need to be an expert to post these reviews. Since you are an user, you are the best expert there is !

So, consumers of India- Blog together ! There is light at the end of the tunnel.