Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles Piyush Goyal addresses the valedictory session of eleventh CII’s Big Picture Summit 2022, in New Delhi on November 17, 2022.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday pitched to be used of bodily surveys mixed with the sensible use of recent know-how available in the market analysis to get the response from the bottom.

Addressing a seminar on the Market Research Society of India, the minister additionally stated the market analysis trade in India has matured considerably in the previous couple of years as there’s extra use of know-how, analytical abilities and synthetic intelligence.

“Given the complexities of a large and diverse nation like India, we must adopt technology intelligently, smartly and make sure that we don’t lose the essence of our work in the outcomes. The market research should have real resonance on the ground,” Mr. Goyal said.

While technology should be adopted and encouraged, doing physical surveys, especially in a country like India, where dialect differs within the State, should also be encouraged, an official statement quoted the minister having said at the event.

Mr. Goyal further observed that online surveys in rural areas may not be able to lock the essence of the response due to varied class, dialect and other reasons and a physical survey will help in understanding the response of people on the ground.

He emphasised that India has a huge potential to digitise surveys. If language skills are improved along with the tools of analysis, the companies will be able to compete better in the developed markets.

“If we get good feedback on the concerns of our consumers, we will be in a position to regulate businesses better to serve consumer interests, and get more investment into India to meet the demand and needs of consumers,” he added.

The research inputs provide feedback to the government on what are the concerns and areas to focus upon. The inputs are used extensively in understanding the concerns of people, based on which government policies are devised, he said.

The industry can come up with insightful research on areas concerning commerce and industry, for example, which areas one should be investing in, where the export markets are or where a plant should be located ideally, he added.

On misleading advertisements, the minister encouraged the industry to focus more on self-regulation and a code of ethics for efficient and credible functioning.

“Misleading commercials violate the rights of customers and due to this fact…there have to be self-regulation and code of ethics which is applied within the trade for environment friendly and credible functioning,” he added.