CCRM Does it Again!
ABOUT THE CELL
Symbiosis Law School Hyderabad is founded on pillars of expertise, justice and Service and is committed to impart quality legal education confirming to acclaimed International standards. Under which the Centre for Consumer Rights and Marketing (CCRM) has been established in the year 2019.
The Centre for Consumer Rights and Marketing has been established to advocate Consumerism, spread awareness of redressal mechanisms, and setup an enquiry on
consumerism and marketing. This centre aims to understand the multidimensional aspects of a buyer and seller relationship. This centre also seeks to raise consumer awareness and also promote the importance of responsible marketing. These two elements together will lead to effective entrepreneur development. Team CCRM consists of members from first year through the fourth year along with our esteemed faculty in-charge Dr. M Rajanikanth. Nikhil Vasireddy and V. Revanth Reddy are the founding members as well as the heads of the cell.
The main objectives of cell have been
- To organize intra institutional competitions and activities to promote consumerism
as well as responsible marketing - To acquaint students and institutions with consumer laws
- To facilitate critical thinking among students and institutions concerning consumer
rights - To organize inter-institutional competitions to promote consumerism as well as
responsible marketing.
With regards to the same the cell has organized three intra college events and a national level event.
Event 1 – Two Day National Webinar on “CORPORATE SICKNESS: SOCIOECONOMIC, POLITICAL AND LEGAL ISSUES, CHALLENGES & IMPLICATIONS”
Details of the Resource Person
Dr.G.B.Reddy is a lawyer turned academician. Studied B.A. (HPP), LL.B., and LL.M. (Constitutional Law) at Osmania University, and P.G. Diploma in Human Rights from University of Hyderabad. He obtained his Ph.D.in Law from Osmania University in 1999 on the topic “Supreme Court and Judicial Activism – Its Contribution in Specific Areas of Constitutional Law after 1980”. His area of specialization is Constitutional Law in LL.M. and Judicial Activism in Ph.D. He specialized in the area of Intellectual Property as an independent researcher, publisher and teacher.
Dr V.R. Narasimhan has started 40 years of work experience in Financial and Capital Markets in India. He started his career as a lecturer. Thereafter he joined AP State Finance Corporation (APSFC) and worked for about 11 years. During the period 1984 to 1987 (very early days of computerization in India) he played a leading role in developing an integrated financial accounting and MIS system for APSFC. While he was in APSFC, he was deputed to work with Public Enterprise Management Board of Government of Andhra Pradesh as Officer on Special Duty (Finance). He also has worked as General Manager and Company Secretary of AP State Film Development Corporation. As a member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, he plays an active role in the academic activities and contributed articles to their professional journal. Dr Narasimhan is a post graduate in Commerce, MBA (Finance) and a Ph.D.
There were many more knowledgeable speakers over the span of two days who shared their part of knowledge and experience.
Event Date, Time and Venue
The Centre for Consumer Rights and Marketing conducted a two day webinar on 11th and 12th of July in collaboration with Pious X Pg (MBA) College for Women on the topic Corporate Sickness: Socioeconomic, Political And Legal Issues, Challenges & Implications. The time of the webinar on both the days was from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. This webinar was conducted on an online platform i.e., on Cisco WebEx.
Keeping the spirit of education, Centre for Consumer Rights and Marketing, an esteemed centre of Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad, organized a webinar on the topic of “Corporate Sickness: Socioeconomic, Political And Legal Issues, Challenges & Implications” was organized by St. Pious X Pg (MBA) College For Women in Association With Indian Council Of Social Science Research (ICSSR) And Centre For Consumer Rights And Marketing (CCRM) Established In Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad And Prof. S. Pardhasaradhi, was The Project Director & Convener. The event was a huge success.
Details of the Webinar
The webinar was conducted as a two day event divided into eleven sessions. The guests and speakers spoke on various topics like Corporate Sickness and IBC, Debt Recovery Law in India, an act to provide for the establishment of Tribunals for expeditious adjudication and recovery of debts due to Banks and Financial Institutions, Challenges in the Transition to the New Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, Role of an IP Professional under IBC, Retrospect and Prospects of IBC, Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Securities Interest Act, and various other topics. The two day event was concluded after having a panel discussion on the topic- Corporate Sickness: Political and Legal Issues and challenges.
Event 2 – COPRO 2.0
EVENT, DATE, TIME & VENUE –
The Centre for Consumer Rights and Marketing conducted a two-day debate competition on 9th and 10th of October. The participants were allotted with various topics which will be listed below. The time of the competition on both the days was from 3 PM to 5 PM. This competition was conducted on an online platform i.e., Google meet.
JUDGES –
- Ganesh Kumar Dendukuri Assistant Professor at Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad
- Pankaj Prakashrao Umbarkar Assistant Professor at Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad
- Kishore Kumar Yathamshetty Assistant Professor at Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad
- Shailendra Kumar Assistant Professor at Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad
Final Round – 10th October, 2019
Debate is one of the important event by which the students can improve their speaking, oratory and understanding skills. Events of such kind will even inculcate the habit of attention in the minds of the students. Keeping the spirit of education, Centre for Consumer Rights and Marketing, an esteemed centre of Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad, conducted a debate competition of COPRO 2.0 on various topic. The centre even conducted COPRO last year which turned to be a huge success that resulted the Centre to conduct another debate competition this year. Out of all the sessions, sessions with the topics “the proposition believes that the farm bill will increase the income gap between rich and poor farmers” and “the proposition believes that the farm bill will increase the income gap between rich and poor farmers” turned out to have the most heated debate.
Here are the winners and the runners-up teams for both the sides, proposition and opposition.
Event 3 – “The Future of Consumer Protection in the light of Consumer Protection Act, 2019- The Sustainable Consumer.” (WEBINAR)
On the occasion of the National Consumers Day which happens to be on 24th December of every year since 1986, the Centre for Consumer Rights and Markerting (CCRM) & the Legal Aid Centre (LAC) planned to conduct a webinar on the topic of “The Future of Consumer Protection in the light of Consumer Protection Act, 2019- The Sustainable Consumer”. This plan was carved into a proposal and was duly sent to the director of Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad, Prof. Sarfaraz Ahmed Khan, wherein it was approved. Both the centres, considering the topic at hand, invited Mr. Mandadi Krishna Reddy, Chairman of the Consumer Affairs Committee, Government of India.
Details of the Resource Person:
M Krishna Reddy is the Chairman of the Consumer Affairs Committee, Government of India, New Delhi and a Central Cabinet Rank Holder. He is a great Social activist and is an eminent personality. He is the man who started the first organized Chain of super markets in India and is the mastermind behind the Apna Bazaar super market movement. He was the Chairman of the Confederation of Consumer Organizations. He Organized a Consumer Rally and delivered speeches in 1110 mandal headquarters in combined Andhra Pradesh State. Besides he is also an author of 54 books and 200 stories, he has the distinction of delivering more than 10,000 speeches in various local, State, National and International forums.
Event, Date, Time and Venue:
The Centre for Consumer Rights and Marketing and Legal Aid Centre conducted a webinar on 24th of December of 2020 on the topic of “The Future of Consumer Protection in the light of Consumer Protection Act, 2019- The Sustainable Consumer”. The proposed time of the webinar is 11.40 AM to 12.40 PM. This webinar was conducted on an online platform i.e., on Cisco WebEx.
DETAILS OF THE WEBINAR:
The webinar started at around 12.00PM when the hosts have briefly spoken about the theme of “The sustainable consumer”, which is observed as specific theme for this year’s National Consumer Day. Meanwhile, the hosts invited Prof Sarfaraz Ahmed Khan, Director, Symbiosis Law School Hyderabad to inaugurate the webinar wherein he laid emphasise on the theme saying that the responsible behaviour of the consumer and sustainable consumption leads to nature friendly consumerism as it is the need of the hour. He also suggested students to learn much from the consumer courts directly as these institutions provide a huge scope in learning prospects. Later, he went on to appreciate the resource person for his contributions in the field of consumer rights and marketing revolutions in the country.
Then, the resource person, Mr. Mandadi Krishna Reddy, Chairman of Consumer Affairs Committee, was invited to reflect on the topic. First of all, he explained the importance of the National Consumers Day pinpointing the event of president’s assent for the Consumer Protection Act, 1984 on this very day. Meanwhile, the International Consumers Day was also referred and it was explained that the assent to 4 resolutions related to consumer rights in 1962 under the John. F. Kennedy’s administration in U.S led to the approval of 15th March as International Consumers Day by the U.N. Later, the speaker went on to mention the major differences between CPA, 1984 and CPA, 2019 and reflected on how the new Act benefits the consumers. Firstly, the CPA, 2019 is a more qualified Act than of its prior one where the definition of consumer is very elaborative in nature. The new definition expands to include the consumers of various e-commerce and other economic activities. Moreover, speaker described about the increased pecuniary jurisdiction by the new Act in comparison to the old statute in a very detailed manner. Additionally, the changed court fee and penalties structure was briefly explained.
He also efficiently dealt with the quintessential topic of misleading advertisements wherein he elucidated upon the penalties that companies and celebrities would face at different levels as against the CPA, 1984 in which, the misleading advertisements were not dealt with in a proper manner. Later, the speaker expounded upon the advantages of establishment of Central Consumer Protection Authority, which was an institution formed for avoiding extra burden on the tribunals. In addition to this, the speaker also spoke about the benefits government established mediation cells which essentially lessen the burden commissions and tribunals.
Later, the speaker expounded upon the defective products and remedies along with the complaints on labelling and designs. Finally, he went on to conclude because of the presence of consumer protection councils at different levels, the sustainable consumerism can be easily upheld by the 2019 Act. Later, the speaker invited questions from the audience wherein a student regarding the challenges faced in the field of e-consumerism after the passage of 2019 Act. Here, the speaker expressed grave concerns regarding the manipulation of addresses and email ID’s of the e- commerce companies and suggested that the government must form a special department functioning at central and state governments to resolve the problems like online cheating.
In the similar lines, another question was posed regarding scope of ethical consumerism in India. Here, the speaker referred to the problems of spurious goods and high prices as ethical challenges to the consumerism. He also called attention to the importance of government support in the aspects of employment of product inspectors for the purpose of ethical movements. He cited the example of Telangana state where the requirement of product inspectors is at 16000 whereas only 192 employees are exclusively employed for checking spurious goods and suggested stringent operations needs to be taken.
Another student asked as to how rapidly the digital economy is increasing in India. In answer to this, the speaker emphasised on the events of demonetisation and Covid-19 pandemic as main reasons to the rapid increase of the digital economy. But he also cited online cheating, hacking as main threat to the prosperous digital transactions. Hence, as per him, the governments must put extra efforts to protect general consumers from the offenders. Later, another question was posed as to whether any challenges would be faced by inclusion of new terms to the CPA, 2019. Here, the speaker elaborated that the consumers wouldn’t face any real threat from the ever changing terms but the challenges would be posed to the CCPA and the governments as the departments have under-employed themselves. According to the speaker, the State Civil supplies departments must me detached themselves from the consumer protection organisations and legal assistants must be employed in such establishments. Alongside, the consumer protection system must be inducted with the investigation officers and the separate police department in order to implement the consumer judgments.
Event 4 – Photography Competition on World Consumer Rights Day-March 15 2021
Initiation
On the occasion of world ‘Consumer Rights Day’ which is celebrated on 15th of March, the Centre for Consumer Rights and Marketing (CCRM) conducted a photography competition and interested participants were expected to submit their photograph on or before 22nd of March 2021. Considering the ever-increasing plastic pollution in the world and also the theme of world consumer rights day, 2021, the theme for this photography competition was “Tackling Plastic Pollution.” This was done to raise awareness regarding plastic pollution and how detrimental it can be for our environment. Through this event, the cell also intended to show how plastic can be recycled so that the consequences faced by the environment can be reduced. The competition was open to students across the country irrespective of their educational affiliation.
Prizes
The prizes were to be given to top three participants in a manner as follows based on voting results:
Winner: Venavelli Anshul Reddy of Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad (2020-2025 Batch) -Trophy along with a hard copy of certificate of appreciation.
Runner up: Akshat Jain Khochhal of Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad (2019-2024 Batch) – Medal and hard copy of certificate of appreciation.
Second Runner up: Nehana Reddy of Pearson School (8th std.)- Hard copy of certificate of appreciation.
Covid Awareness Activities
In May 2021, in response to the second wave of the Coronavirus Pandemic, CCRM engaged in several activities to raise awareness. The Centre maintained an online database containing information regarding various organizations, NGOs and initiatives working towards Covid relief. This included details regarding bed, plasma and oxygen availability along with food delivery to Covid affected families. The database covered 8 states in the country which was updated on a daily basis. The Centre also arranged a Q&A session with a doctor on Zoom to address questions related to vaccination, Covid symptoms, double-masking and common myths. Based on the responses received from the doctor and inputs given by the research team, CCRM posted multiple awareness videos about double masking and vaccines on it’s Instagram and Facebook handles.
The Internship
CCRM came out with its second edition of internship in August 2021 wherein about 14 interns were selected after a rigorous selection process. Students from law as well as management field participated in the 21-day internship which was divided into different activities which entailed team building, research workshop, research and drafting, blog and creative content writing, group discussion and paper presentation. Team building workshop was conducted on 5th August in which interns as well as cell members introduced themselves followed by a Bollywood and logo quiz. The very next activity conducted on 7th August was a “Research Workshop”, where Dr. Ganesh Kumar discussed the process of a research article. Taking into account the information discussed by Dr. Ganesh, the interns were able to apply them successfully in the very next activity, “Research and Drafting.” Followed by this, the interns were put on to a test to apply knowledge with all the creativity they had in the “Blog and Creative Content” activity, they indeed passed with excellence. Another quiz was organized for the interns which revolved around logos, taglines and other related marketing knowledge.
For group discussion, interns were divided into two groups. The first discussion was regarding the various unique marketing strategies being utilized by companies to target customers during pandemic while the other topic was of business ethics- a myth or reality. Four best speakers were selected for the next round and the best two speakers proceeded further for a last debate round. The final task for the interns was a paper presentation in which each intern got about 10 minutes to present their papers which they wrote during the internship which was followed by questions from the audience. Finally, as a wrap up session, team building activity was organized in which interns were grouped in teams of two and they had to pitch in for certain products. Whoever convinced the audience the most, won. After successful completion of internship all interns were given internship certificates.
