The Public Newsense

Imagine it’s a cosy Sunday and you are waking up late after a well-deserved sleep-in. You don’t feel like cooking and you remember that you still have plenty of leftovers from ordering in on Saturday night. Feeling relieved that you only have to heat up the food, you pull out the take-out boxes of food from your refrigerator and you are ready to toss it in your microwave, thinking to yourself, “Thank God for technology!”. But the responsible adult in you pops up asking you to check if the plastic takeout box is safe to use in the microwave oven.

A laissez-faire attitude towards safety could be said to be a defining Indian characteristic. Everytime we step out of our house, whether we are walking or driving a vehicle, we risk our lives and often the lives of other people on the road. The assumption seems to be that crashes occur to other people and that somehow miraculously we will not come to harm in spite of our foolhardy behaviour. 

Chennai receives the majority of its annual rainfall during the monsoon season, from October to December. While the monsoon brings relief from the heat, it also poses various challenges for motorists. 

Hazardous factors affecting motorists during monsoon

The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 is the primary document of reference concerning any and all cases related to consumer disputes and conflicts. The Act describes a consumer as  anyone who buys goods or avails services for a consideration (ie, a price). The Act also describes who is not a consumer, even though there has been a transaction, as anyone  who buys goods or avails services for further commercial use or profit making purposes.

We all keep hearing that the world is drowning in plastic. Some of us know that it stands true even in the literal sense where our air, land and water are severely polluted and contaminated with macro, micro and nano-plastics.

Over the years, the number of schools, especially private ones, has burgeoned and so have mobility options for the school commute.  This has provided families with the flexibility to choose schools located farther from their homes. However, this also means there are more road safety risks for their children if precautions aren't taken.

Lifestyle changes and the manufacture of super-efficient

Consumers are all too familiar with the frequent power cuts - both from personal experience and from the many newspaper reports on this.

More than a decade ago, I was living in the nation’s capital. Navigating New Delhi’s traffic, dredging up my high school Hindi and coping with work and managing my own place was quite a juggling feat. In the middle of this, I got a call from my landlord gently chiding me for not paying the previous month’s rent. But I distinctly remembered writing the cheque and depositing it and so couldn’t fathom what had gone wrong. Anyhow, I promised him I would look into it and if needed pay double with the next cheque. My landlord, being a lovely person, was content with that promise.