PM Modi pitches for International Consumer Care Day for strengthening trust between businesses, consumers

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi while underlining that a profitable market can be sustained when there is a balance in the interests of producers and consumers, on Sunday suggested for a 'International Consumer Care Day'.

He also said that treating other countries only as a market will not work.

"A profitable market can be sustained where there is a balance in the interest of producers and consumers. This also applied to nations, treating other countries only as a market will never work. It will even harm the producing countries sooner or later," Modi said while addressing the B20 Summit India 2023 here.

He said, "Making everyone equal partners in the progress in the way forward. There are many global business leaders here, can we all give more thought on to how to make business more consumer-centric. These consumers could be individuals or countries, their interest need to be taken care of as well.”

"Can we think of a yearly campaign for this? Every year, can global business leaders come together to dedicate themselves for the good of the consumers and their markets. We talk about consumer rights. The Consumer Rights Day is also celebrated across the world. Can we take the initiative for consumer care? ," Modi asked the business leaders.

He further said, "Once we start celebrating the Consumer Care day, the environment will change with a positive signal. If we talk about the consumer care, then the issues related to rights, will automatically be solved. Therefore, International Consumer Care Day, I want you all to think on this. This will further strengthen trust between the consumer and the business."

The Prime Minister elaborated that consumers are not confined to retail consumers within a particular geography but also the nations that are consumers of global trade, global goods and services.

Referring to climate change, water security, cyber security, among others, the Prime Minister said, "These all puts an impact on business. We have to increase our efforts to tackle this."

Talking about the challenges of cryptocurrencies, Modi said, "More and more integrated approach is required. For this, a global framework should be made in which all the stakeholders should be taken care of."

Mentioning about the Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Prime Minister said, "Today the world is seeing excitement for AI. But, there are some ethical consideration, skilling and re-skilling. We have to unitedly solve this.”

"Global business communities and governments together have to ensure that ethical AI gets expand," Modi added.

The Prime Minister also said, “As a business, we also have to focus on creating an ecosystem that will benefit us in the long term. Now, due to the policies implemented by India in the past few years, 13.5 crore people have come out of poverty in just 5 years. These people are the new consumers."

"This neo middle class is also giving momentum to India's growth. That is, the net beneficiary of the work done by the government for the poor is our middle class as well as our MSMEs," Modi said.

India holds an important place in building an efficient and trusted global supply chain, he added.

Expressing happiness that B20 has emerged as a robust platform among businesses of G20 nations, the Prime Minister also stressed the need to focus on sustainability.

He asked global business to move forward as sustainability, in itself, is an opportunity as well a business model.