Green living for ?new-age’ consumers?

Published August 6, 2010

the new generation of college aspirants, what would you want for your self and the world around you? Is it enough to own a slimmer phone or an Ipod with greater memory? Where will all those phone calls and songs lead you? Are these new “technological teddy bears” simply society’s small reparation for the trauma you have suffered from targeted advertising during your childhood? What do you want to achieve in the near term and in the long run? Do you feel alone in your views and in your capacities? Have the older generations helped you form your current opinions or have you grown up despite their attempted training?

Clearly, despite our multifarious efforts we need a forum that is far more interactive than a consumer journal and more powerful in its reach and capability. Write to us if any of these words echo upon your heart strings or in your mindscape.

By Karan R. Aggarwala, Ph.D

Consumer VOICE was founded by teachers and students at the University of Delhi in the beginning of the academic year 1983-84. Till mid 1986, Consumer VOICE functioned as an unregistered voluntary consumer association.

On 28 June 1986, it was registered as a Public Charitable Trust with noted jurist, Justice (retd.) V.M. Tarkunde and Prof. P.K. Ghosh of the Delhi School of Economics as founder donors and Dr. Sri Ram Khanna and Mr Rajan Karanjawala as Trustees.

In 1988 the Dept of Company Affairs Govt. of India accorded recognition to Consumer VOICE under the MRTP Act. The trust has since been granted exemption under section 80-G of the Income Tax Act and, donations made to the Trust are exempt from Tax. However the organization does not accept donations from private enterprise in order to ensure objectivity, or from individuals except when the donor is genuinely committed to espouse the cause of consumer protection.

As one of its first consumer-rights initiative, VOICE filed a suit against the ‘Wills Made for Each Other’ tobacco campaign, as it was monopolistic and discriminated against consumers who did not smoke. VOICE also challenged television manufacturers which were selling colour television sets at a premium to consumers during the Asiad Games.

In 1997, VOICE started to publish Consumer VOICE, a bi-monthly magazine that focused on bringing consumers information on product performance. ‘Voltage Stabilisers’ were one of the first product tests to be published in Consumer VOICE magazine.

The publisher of Consumer VOICE magazine since 1999 it is currently working in close co-ordination with the Dept of Consumer Affairs, Govt of India, on a comparative product testing project. The project aims to test a wide range of products most commonly used by Indian consumers in NABL-accredited laboratories. The test results are then published in Consumer VOICE magazine.

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