The Department of Consumer Affairs is one of the two Departments under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. The Department has the mandate to Protect Consumer Rights, create Consumer Awareness and resolve Consumer Grievances within the ambit of Consumer Protection Act 2019.
With an objective to recognize the best such Indian solutions, Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA), Government of India, invites applications from individuals/companies/organizations for an Innovation Challenge.
To provide timely and effective consumer grievance redressal and prevent malpractices of quality and measurements are the two key visions of the Department among various other visions. The Department is in the direction of moving beyond Consumer Protection to Consumer Prosperity. For the purpose of effective grievance redressal, the Department runs a 24 x 7 online consumer helpline webportal and has also established a 3 tier quasi judicial body viz. National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission, an apex body situated in Delhi, State Consumer Commissions in every State and District Consumer Commissions at District Level. The Department has enacted Consumer Protection Act 2019 to safeguard the interests of the consumers. The Department has also enacted Legal Metrology Act 2009 for quantitative assurance to the citizens.
In the pursuit of the visions of the Department towards better Consumer protection, the Department has thought of inviting innovative ideas that could be implemented through technology from young brains of the country. The Department has identified two key areas wherein participants can compete to give in total solutions for the problem statements.
Problem Statements
- Consumer Grievance Redressal: There are many judgments passed on by National Consumer Disputes Redresal Commission(NCDRC) and various State Consumer Commissions. A tool with the help of Artificial Intelligence that could help in identifying judgments delivered on similar pattern of cases through keywords search, will help consumers in understanding the possible remedy they could get. This will also help Commissions in delivering judgments on already settled law.
- Consumer Protection: An effective tool to register shops that use certified weights and measures ( eg Sweet shops) and locating the same. This will help consumers in locating certified shops and thus guaranteeing getting quality assurance.
Eligibility Criteria
- All Indian Citizens/companies/organizations are eligible
- Organisations or Entities must be registered in India
- For the product to be developed as part of the Challenge, if any IPR/Patent is being used, the contesting entity must possess the legitimate rights to use the IPR/Patents.
- The product to be developed for the Challenge should be designed and developed in India.
Awards:-
- The selected entrepreneurs in the IDEATION Stage will be given a grant of INR 20,000 each to develop the Proof of Concept (POC) of their idea. Mentors will also be assigned to the entrepreneurs(?) to help develop the idea.
- In the final Stage/PoC Stage, 2 entries will be selected for a reward of INR 50,000 each by the Department, for final development and rollout.
- All the selected entries will be provided with a certificate of appreciation from MyGov and DoCA.
Deadline:– 02-11-2021
