Quality standards for gig, shared economy players soon: top govt officials

Indian Bureau of Standards also mulling adoption of ISO benchmarks; need for standardisation also arises from increasing number of complaints received by consumer affairs ministry lately

The Indian Bureau of Standards (IBS) is actively considering preparing standards on shared economy, confirmed senior officials from the Consumer Affairs Ministry. They also said that the IBS is considering standards published by the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) for adoption in India.

Over time, the standards will cover sectors such as food aggregators, cab aggregators, online healthcare services and others. “It is planned to ultimately cover all the sectors like food aggregators, cab aggregator, online health services etc, in future, but currently following standard published by ISO/TC 324 is under consideration for adoption as the Indian Standard,” the Ministry of Consumer Affairs Food and Public Distribution said  in an email response to Business Standard.

Shared economy predominantly covers segments like shared mobility (Ola/Uber), co-working (Awfis, WeWork), co-living (OYO, StanzaLiving etc), furniture rental (Furlenco, etc).

The ISO/TC 324 covers issues such as quality of products and the time frame within which they are delivered, privacy safeguards, breaches to data protection and unauthorised data sharing, problems related to frauds and scams and difficulties associated with making complaints and getting redressal.

Who will benefit

• Standards to cover sectors such as food aggregators, cab aggregators, online health care services, and others
• Shared economy predominantly covers shared mobility, co-working, co-living, furniture rental
• Need to standardise comes from rising number of complaints

Asked if India is also giving inputs to ISO on coming out with global standards, he said: “Under Business Services Sectional Committee, SSD 09, a subcommittee on Sharing Economy, namely subcommittee on sharing economy, SSD 09:2 has been constituted with the following scope: Standardisation in the field of sharing economy, and Coordination with the work of ISO/TC 324 – 'Sharing Economy' as Participating(P) member including voting on ISO documents.”

The need for standardisation also arises from the increasing number of complaints the consumer affairs ministry has been receiving lately. Recently the Ministry of Consumers Affairs announced that it will soon create a framework for 'right of repair' in India, for which it has set up an expert panel.

According to a recent survey by LocalCirles on the need for better after-sales services, it was found that 43 per cent of Indian households in a survey had three or more devices at home that were less than five years old and needed services or repair. Some reasons for not getting these products repaired was failure of the brand to deliver, and the high cost of getting service or repair, among others.

"This is a positive move. Standards are of great relevance especially at this time. We have escalated three recommendations from India from an international standpoint as well. These include cap on surge pricing, disincentive for drivers to cancel rides and hygiene and sanitisation of shared spaces which include shared taxis," Sachin Taparia, founder of LocalCircles said.

He added, "We hope these standards will apply not only in India but many foreign nations will adopt them as well."