HOMAI welcomes new anti-counterfeiting move

Dec. 26, 2011 - PRLog -- The Hologram Manufacturers Association of India (HOMAI) is a non-profit organisation working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of holographic technology welcomes the initiative of the “Department of Trade and Industry” (DTI) in the Philippines to provide greater protection for consumers against the dangers of counterfeit electrical products.

The DTI’s has given instructions to vendors to include new upgraded Import Commodity Clearance (ICC) Hologram stickers on electrical goods by April 2012.

On this occasion Mr. Pradip Shroff, HOMAI President, said: “this is a wonderful initiative by the Philippines Government to fight against counterfeiting and protecting the consumers. It reaffirms the hologram’s position as a pre-eminent security feature in the global anti-counterfeiting fight. We urge Indian Government to take similar or better steps in the same direction.    

“The recent hooch tragedy in West Bengal is a recent example. Use of Hologram should be mandated by BIS (Bureau of Indian Standard) for all products. In India we have now "Star energy labels" for electrical goods to indicate the energy saved. These labels can be easily upgraded by incorporating use of security holograms. In India and all over the world Security holograms are widely used in excise seals, credit cards, election IDs, driving licence, pass ports, currency notes etc., we would request the government to take similar steps to prevent counterfeiting  ” he further added.  

The DTI has unveiled an update of the 2009 ICC sticker, which features higher definition printing to make it costlier and more difficult to duplicate.

These serve as indicators to consumers that products such as electric fans, light bulbs, Christmas lights, fuses, air conditioners have passed mandatory safety standards enforced by the Trade department. Importers must submit samples of these goods for inspection to receive an ICC certificate for the business and safety seals which must be affixed on the products.

For more visit us at www.homai.org

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The HOMAI is a not-for-profit organisation working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of holographic technology. Established in 1998, it consists of India leading producers and converters of holograms for anti-counterfeiting, brand protection, packaging, graphics and other commercial applications around the world. Today, HOMAI member companies are providing various solutions to protect more than 10,000 brands and helping states government’s revenues in India.