Indian consumers deserve safer cars – Demand raised during Consumer International car safety workshop

Panchkula, July 21, 2016 : Safety features like air bags and anti skid braking system (ABS) should be made standard in all variants of cars was the common refrain among all participants in a car safety workshop organised by Delhi based Consumer VOICE in partnership with Citizen Awareness Group and Panchkula Management Association (PMA) at a city hotel, on Thursday.

The workshop is part of a global campaign by Consumer International to demand for safer cars for consumers. The consumer demand for safer cars will push for better safety regulation and standards in India at par with global safety standards.

Making a presentation on behalf of Consumer Voice Delhi and Consumer International Mr. Hemant Upadhyay, and driving behaviour expert Dr Guneet Singh said we as car users also need to give equal importance to safety aspects of cars as we do to looks, mileage, etc and demand of manufacturers and the government to produce safer cars for Indian roads at par with the advanced countries.

The participants were informed that India is the world’s sixth largest car market and 2.03 million passenger cars were sold in India as per 2015 data.  India has been witnessing very high rate of road accidents resulting in the largest number of road deaths and injuries in the world.  On an average 1,374 crashes and 400 deaths take place every day on Indian roads.  One of the major reasons for high causalities in road accidents in the lack of safety features in Indian cars which have been criticized as being insufficient and ineffective compared to developed countries.

They said when the world is gearing up for fully automated self drive cars, most of the cars sold in India lack basic safety features like air bags, antilock braking systems (ABS), electronic stability control (ESC) etc. Due to absence of strict safety regulations and testing procedures like Global New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP), most car manufactures design their cars in India without essential car safety features in name of cost cutting. Recently when some of popular cars in India were tested on NCAP standards out of 5 cars four failed badly, they added.

Mr. IPS Anand, Secretary General of PMA, and Mr S K Nayar, President, Indian Citizens’ Forum, also spoke on the occasion.

Strong passwords, 2-step verification emphasized at Google Internet Safety Workshop

Chandigarh, July 20, 2016 : Need to have a strong and unique  password and use of 2-step verification and security key were among the host of measures emphasized at a Internet Safety Workshop organized by New Delhi based Consumer VOICE in partnership with Google and Citizens Awareness Group at University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET), Panjab University, on Wednesday. The workshop was part of a series of state workshops being organized across India.

Highlighting the best internet security practices in a Security Café conducted on behalf of Consumer VOICE and Google, Ms Rinki Sharma, said passwords being the first line of defense against cyber criminals, it is important that these be strong and unique  and be changed frequently.

She said with 2–step verification and security key, consumers can protect their account with both password and phone. Talking about protecting your device, she said tools such as Android Device Manager help you locate your device. So, if you’ve lost a device, you can use Android Device Manager to find its approximate location on a map and when it was last used.

She advised the audience to always remember to download apps from trusted sources. Your screens should also be kept locked using passwords, patterns, fingerprints, pin or through face recognition, she added.

Rinki cautioned internet users to beware of various scams that entice you into sharing your personal sensitive information with unknown sources. Checkout for authentic domain names before you give out your personal information, she said.

Dwelling on safe and secure shopping online, she said it was necessary to ensure that the websites from which you make your purchases is reputed. Make sure you have researched sufficiently about the product. It is good to look for secure checkout process while making your payments. In short, be safe – be secure

Citizen Awareness Group chairman Surinder Verma said no doubt internet is a very strong medium of communication and information, but measures should constantly be upgraded to safeguard the users from cheating, fraud and malicious propaganda.

Mr.Rakesh Tuli, senior research advisor,Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP), UIET, Panjab University, and Ms. Inderdeep Kaur Aulakh, coordinator, department of IT, UIET, also graced the occasion.