In a strong move against counterfeiting and
solutions to eradicate this menace, a two-day event, International Leadership
Summit on Anti-Counterfeiting and Brand Protection “The Authentication Forum
2018” was held on March 15-16, 2018 at the Taj Mahal Hotel in New Delhi, India.
Organised by Authentication Solutions Providers Association (ASPA), the second
edition of the Authentication forum was inaugurated by Mr. Suresh Prabhu, Union
Minister, Ministry of Commerce & Industry & Civil Aviation, Government
of India.
In his inaugural address, Prabhu reiterated the
government's resolve to deal harshly with the rising menace of
counterfeiting. "We are going to make a very modern Intellectual Property
Rights (IPR) era in India and that would lead to creating people investing into
the brand and that will lead to a knowledge economy which in turn will make
India a far better place and developed place," he said.
To make Brand India a clearly acceptable brand we
must first protect IPR because countries, companies, even Indian companies that
are going to invest huge amount of money into brand building, creating new
rights in form of patents, copyrights or new product development or molecule
development all of them would need IPR protection. "If Indian brands
want to become global then they must also be able to respect global brands in
India," he added.
Besides, Union Minister, eminent dignities
including Registrar General, Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Right
Authority, Central Board of Excise & Customs, Hyundai, Society of
Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Ernst & Young, KPMG, Hero Motor Corp., FMC
Corporation, Pesticide Manufacturers Association of India (PMFAI), Anand & Anand
and others also shared their viewpoints at the summit.
Dr. R.C. Agrawal, Registrar General, Protection of
Plant Varieties and Farmers Right Authority, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers
Welfare said: “Even as industry revenues take a major hit by counterfeits, the
biggest loss is to the consumer. All of us need to work together to address
this growing concern and the panel discussion with various cross-sector
stakeholders at this important forum will serve this purpose.”
At the occasion, Dr. S K Singh, Scientific Advisor,
Union Minister, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers, said, “Indian government
is taking big steps in digitising agriculture sector to ensure farmers rights.
He also emphasis need of that measures like traceability &
anti-counterfeiting solutions which will ensure the quality commitment of agricultural
products produce in India”. It is being noted that the size of the spurious pesticide
market in India is as high as 30% by volume and 25% by value. It is predicted that
the market for spurious Agrochemicals will reach 40% by value of pesticides
sold in the country by 2019.
At the occasion, Mr. U.K. Gupta, President, ASPA,
said, “Counterfeiting is increasing globally. In India also, the problem is
growing with an alarming rate of almost 44% per year. As per industry body
FICCI-CASCADE, from the counterfeiting activity the Government of India
incurred a loss of 26,190 crores in fiscal year 2011-12 which has increased to
39,239 crores in 2013-14, a growth of 49.8% in two years. The market for fakes
are on a constant rise in India and has surpassed over Rs 40,000 crore in the organised
sector alone, as law enforcement remains weak and fraudsters freely make inroads
into the market."
Day one of the summit witnesses three panel
discussion Role of Govt. & Industry in fighting fake and protecting
consumer, understanding 5W’s of Counterfeiting and engaging consumers in fight
against counterfeiting. At the last session of day companies including Holostik,
Manipal Technologies and Rolling Optics delivered presentation on current authentication
solutions against counterfeiting.
The day two of summit started with case studies
from brand owners understanding their perspectives. Whilst, Dr. Bakul Joshi,
Brand Protection Expert, FMC Corporation shared case study on protecting Agrochemicals
products, Mr. Naveen Chauhan, Head Sales & Marketing (parts Business)
shared automotive perspective. Presenting pharma perspective Mr. Sourav Mitra,
Associate Vice-President Packaging Strategy – OSD said, Health is Wealth and to
ensure it we need to firm stand against fakes. The event also witnessed a
dedicated session on future of anti-counterfeiting technologies including
blockchain, NFC, Optical and offline authentication. The audience also got a
chance to have presentation on importance of branding, IPR and effective
intelligence.
The forum ended with a The Big Debate - Global
Growth of Counterfeiting Trade - Why is it increasing – lack of intent, of
action or of awareness? In the debate a major question arose as to who is important
-consumer or profit" Replying to it one of moderator mentioned that both
are important but, we must keep in mind that if consumer survives, then the
profit exists. One of panellist expressed his views as that sometime consumer
himself buys counterfeit products especially in electronics products like
mobile. Answering this one of delegate disagreed with speakers and questioned
as to whether any parent will buy a fake medicine for his/her child. The brand
is baby of brand owners and it is he, who is mainly responsible for its
protection. The debate ended with conclusion is that Today, having an effective
anti-counterfeiting and brand protection strategy is no longer an option but an
essential part of any business strategy. Consumer protection is very
important and authentication solutions in integration with digital technologies
can play a vital and important role in it.
