August 2016

INTRODUCTION: We are pleased to inform you that on 10th March 2015 as per our scheduled activity, we launched the project to understand the various matrix to be adopted to measure the Consumer Friendly Index of the States in India at Chennai. The all stakeholder consultation was inaugurated by Mr. T. S. Krishnamurthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India in the presence of Mr. Wajahat Habibullah, Chairman of Partnership for Safe Medicines India and Former Chief Information Commissioner of India, Dr. V. Prakash, Distinguished Scientist of CSIR India, Dr. Surinder Singh, Director Incharge, National Institute of Biologicals and Mr. S. Gopalakrishnan, IAS, Commissioner Government of Tamil Nadu, Department of Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection. We had more than 100 participants representing leading consumer organisations from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telengana including industry associations and Government officials. [fruitful_tabs type=”default” width=”100%” fit=”false”] [fruitful_tab title=”Chennai”] Measuring the Most Consumer-Friendly State in India We are pleased to inform you that on 10th March 2015 as per our scheduled activity, we launched the project to understand the various matrix to be adopted to measure the Consumer Friendly Index of the States in India at Chennai. The all stakeholder consultation was inaugurated by Mr. T. S. Krishnamurthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India in the presence of Mr. Wajahat Habibullah, Chairman of Partnership for Safe Medicines India and Former Chief Information Commissioner of India, Dr. V. Prakash, Distinguished Scientist of CSIR India, Dr. Surinder Singh, Director Incharge, National Institute of Biologicals and Mr. S. Gopalakrishnan, IAS, Commissioner Government of Tamil Nadu, Department of Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection. We had more than 100 participants representing leading consumer organisations from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telengana including industry associations and Government officials. Agenda>>> Concept Note>>> Chennai Report>>> Event Pictures>>> [/fruitful_tab] [fruitful_tab title=”Kolkata”] Hunt for the ‘Most Consumer Friendly State’ begins The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Government of West Bengal extended their support by hosting the Regional Conference on ‘Criteria for Measuring the Most Consumer Friendly State(s) in India’ organized by the Consumer Online Foundation in New Delhi. The event took place at the Kreta Suraksha Bhawan on Tuesday. Sadhan Pande, Minister In charge of Consumer Affairs, Self-help Group and Self Employment, Government of West Bengal said, “I accepted Mr. Misra’s proposal immediately because this will be an eye-opener when the report is published, it will tell us which state is the most consumers friendly. He lashed out at the Central Government and expressed his worries, “I am surprised that the Government of India is not putting stress on the consumer affairs. Who will listen to the problems of the common man? Where does he go? So the consumer movement will have to come in a big manner.” Pandey also expressed his concern about the Prime Minister’s attitude towards consumer affairs. He said, “The Prime Minister (of India) have spoken to Indian’s abroad but have not looked into this matter, have not attended a single meeting in Delhi with the Consumer Affairs Minister.” He, however, showered praises on his own department and state, “We are doing our best in spite of the financial difficulties, and we had two consumer courts previously, now we have three. We have asked the Central Government to give some statutory power to the grievance court so everyone is served justice (on wealthy people ignoring calls by the grievance courts.)” West Bengal is the only state to have an Independent Ministry for Consumer Affairs and boasts of a Consumer Assistance Bureau, financed by the State Government. In his speech, Satish Chandra Tewary, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of West Bengal said, “We have our own articulated cartoons apart from the ones by Jaago Grahak Jaago. They are drawn by Chandi Lahiri and we would be increasing them in order to inform and educate all the consumers.” A Subbiah, Secretary to the State, Government of West Bengal claimed, “We are a strong contender if not the only one for the prize.” He added, “We have sensitized or offices and officials by providing them with proper training. The Number of cases has increased in the last three years and we need the Central Government’s help to carry on with the movement.” Surinder Singh, Director In-Charge, National Institute of Biologicals, Government of India mentioned, “The very objective of quality healthcare is to look after the patient’s safety. Communication is the most important factor.” P C Jha, Vice Chairperson, Consumer Online Foundation, New Delhi said, “A wide gap exists between what should be done and what have been done so far.” Bejon Kumar Misra, Founder, COF and the man in charge of this mission said “We are doing this project to bring out the truth to the forefront.” The winner of this prize will be announced on March 2016. Delegates from Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha along with other dignitaries both from this state and its neighbors also attended this meeting.   Source: New Kerela [/fruitful_tab] [/fruitful_tabs]

In order to make the Healthcare Delivery System accountable and accessible to the poor and the elderly citizens in India a Pilot Initiative in Varanasi was launched and a National Consultation with Experts from India & Overseas was organised from 09-11 August 2015 in collaboration with Government of India, Mata Anandamayee Hospital, Consumer Online Foundation and Partnership for Safe Medicines India Initiative www.safemedicinesindia.in The event was attended by 150+ delegates in Varanasi. Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) India signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for establishing a centre of excellence on ‘Patient Safety and Accessibility to Quality Healthcare’ with the Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) to achieve the goal of universal health coverage (UHC) through efficient use of resources and technology. The MoU was signed by chairman of PSM India Initiative and also former Union chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah and dean (Research and Development), IIT-BHU, Prof P K Jain during a three-day national consultation on ‘Improving Access to Quality Healthcare’ through “UHC: Varanasi Initiative” at a hotel in cantonment area on Monday. The goal of full health care coverage is based on profiling the health of at least 100,000 poor and senior citizens of Varanasi in the next one year. “All the activities conducted under the project will be documented and information emerging from the initiative will be used for conducting research and development on Patient Safety and Accessibility to Quality Healthcare by the faculty and students of IIT-BHU,” founder director of PSM, Bejon Misra told to TOI. The Centre will come up at department of pharmaceutics, IIT-BHU and a working group will be constituted for the same, he added. Prof Jain said that the varsity is ready to extend all its help and support for a noble cause as this is to implement UHC. The drugs controller general of India Dr G N Singh also expressed his desire to set up a drug testing lab at IIT-BHU on the occasion. “The healthcare indicators of our country are among the worst among developing countries, despite it being one of the world’s fastest growing economies during the past decades. The consumer organizations like us have been demanding for increase in number of resources in the healthcare sector since the last three decades for quality healthcare of people without shelling out money from their pockets,” Misra said. To achieve this, we came up with the idea of involving group of stakeholders through public-private partnership (PPP) wherein our focus would be complete healthcare coverage and improvement in preventive healthcare services by ensuring adequate availability of expert doctors in rural areas surrounding Varanasi, he added. Misra informed that Mata Anandmayee Hospital has been selected for consultative care services along with other facilities. Citing the areas of activities, Misra said, “The activities for the first year will focus on improving the processes and the systems to increase accessibility to safe and quality healthcare to at least 100,000 citizens of the holy city identified as below poverty line (BLP) citizens or as senior citizens. They will then be provided with a digitized health card to enable seamless accessibility to preventive and urgent healthcare.” Based on the outcomes and benefit perceived by the patients of Varanasi, the project will be scaled up in city to ensure sustainability on a public private partnership mode and replicated in other locations starting from July next. Meanwhile, several discussions on concept sharing and setting the agenda and objective of consultation, keynote addresses on ‘situational analysis’, ‘use of modern technology as enabler for patients to access transparent and accountable healthcare without compromising on safety and quality’, ‘implementation of healthcare reforms’ and ‘last mile delivery of essential healthcare services in rural areas and small towns’ as well as plenary sessions on the aforementioned subjects were held on the occasion. PSM India is a coalition of consumer organizations, patient, physician, pharmacist, university, industry and other professional organizations committed to the safety of prescription drugs and protecting consumers against unapproved, spurious, counterfeit, substandard, falsified, mishandled or otherwise unsafe medicines. Source : Times of India Click Here to View Event Images>>>

Big Victory for the consumers… We the citizens salute Madam Jeeja Ghosh for taking up the cause on behalf of the rights of differently abled persons. Click Here to Read SC Judgement