Pune, April 30, 2016: The Authentication Solution Providers’ Association (ASPA) is the world’s first and only self-regulated non-profit organization that represents the entire authentication solutions industry globally. ASPA today announces the extension of its industry and consumer centric “Make Sure India” campaign to Maharashtra, to educate and enable brand owners to understand the benefits and importance of authentication solutions to curb counterfeiting in various sectors, thus protecting the lives of consumers, reputation of brands and revenue of brand owners in the country. Today, its member companies are already protecting more than 10,000 brands globally.
On this occasion Mr. Arun Agarwal, General Secretary, ASPA said, “Product counterfeiting has become a menace badly affecting Indian industries, country, society and consumers at large. The global trade in counterfeit goods reached a value of $461bn in 2013, according to a new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The danger of counterfeiting gets multiplied when it comes to healthcare products including pharmaceuticals, baby care and skin care products. According to International Policy Network report “Keeping it Real” over 7,00,000 people avoidably die every year due to fake malaria and tuberculosis drugs. Even in India, according to ASSOCHAM, up to 70% dietary supplements sold in Indian market are fake.
To combat this problem as a non-profit association we brought world-class new generation effective authentic solutions which are empowering consumer, brand owners and government authorities to easily identify genuine goods and products. We are bridging the gap between brands and consumers by verifying and authenticating products to the consumer in real-time through mobile app, web application and SMS amongst others. The authentication solutions play an important role in consumer protection, and helping brand owners in increasing revenue by knocking off counterfeiters from the market, as there is a tendency that counterfeiters go for brands which have simple packaging.
There are case studies in the Pharmaceutical industry which indicated that adoption of authentication solutions have impacted over 50% of increase in sales. The more and more brands are adopting solutions such as high security hologram with 2D and alphanumeric codes on each individual blister pack, bottle or injectable vial.
Indian industries are lots of potential but badly affected due to counterfeiting and the high menace of counterfeit is not only bothering Government & Brand Owners but also increasing life threat to the end consumer.
“We welcome the initiative of Government of India and the campaign ‘Make in India’, however, there is a constant need to ensure that these ‘Made in India’ labelled products are genuine, safe and secure till they are delivered to the end consumer. The lack of awareness is making innocent people unknowingly buy fakes at the cost of original products. In one of the worst examples of harm, buying fake medicines or baby food can result in serious health issues or even loss of life,” Mr. Agarwal further added.
Corporate Comm India (CCI Newswire)
