Consumer Affairs Secretary urges FMCG, food and retail to strengthen grievance redressal

With consumer complaints nearly five times higher than five years ago, the government is pressing FMCG, food and retail companies to improve redressal systems, alongside AI-enabled testing expansion and simpler BIS standards.

— Filed Tue, 4 Aug, 2026, 17:36 IST · Source The Hindu BusinessLine · Updated

Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare urged India’s FMCG, food and retail sectors to strengthen grievance systems amid rising complaints. The government plans AI-enabled testing expansion, simpler BIS standards and improvement notices under Legal Metrology rules before compounding violations.

Why this matters

The push extends the Department of Consumer Affairs' recent standards and compliance agenda, following its Smart Standards plans and applications for legal-metrology test-centre recognition.

Retail-company signals are accelerating, up +203171% quarter over quarter.

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