Make Reasonable Profits Keeping In Mind Results For Country, Public: Consumer Affairs Secretary

Businesses should make a reasonable profit while keeping in mind the result it will yield for the country and public, Consumers Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said on Monday. While speaking at an event organised by industry body IAMAI, Singh emphasised on keeping a balance between ease of doing business and consumer interest. 

He said that the first priority for the government is the people and therefore whatever action is taken should benefit the people. "Most of our work revolves around 'P's and last not but the least is public-private partnership. How the public system should engage with the private sector so that we work for the betterment of society. I am not asking you to do charity. You will have to make a reasonable profit but we have to keep in mind what it is doing for the country, what it is doing for the public," Singh said. 

He said that the whole consumer protection paradigm is about fair trading practices. "You might be the world's largest company but the balance between the seller and consumer needs to be maintained,” Singh said. He said India is strong, resilient, robust, which has absorbed the shocks and bounced back. 

"An anti-fragile nation is one that bounces back, provides better delivery and better solutions, and is better than what it was before the shock. The Covid crisis, the Ukraine geopolitical crisis and many other things happening across the world have proven that India now is anti-fragile with a capacity to bounce back,” he said. 

At the event, National Cyber Security Coordinator Rajesh Pant said companies should invest more than 10 per cent of information technology assets in cybersecurity. "In the future, once 5G comes, we expect the 5 billion internet users to reach 25 billion by the end of this year and therefore, companies must invest in security. Never compromise on the security part," he said. 

Talking about international-level solutions for cybercrime, Pant said that like-minded nations including India, Australia, the UK, and the US, were getting together. "We have created an International Counter Ransomware Task Force where perpetrators are put under sanctions. It has saved about USD 150 million,” he said.