Pune: Bringing technology to rescue, a Pune-based startup has found a solution to tackle an age-old problem of counterfeit products, which will give an edge to manufacturers and help consumers to differentiate between a genuine and a fake product.
The solution called as ‘Neurotags’ come in form of quick response (QR) codes which are printed on the product. The code needs to be scanned by the user through a phone and in turn, the user will get a response from the company whether the product is genuine or fake. The technology, which is just a few months old, has already been accepted by 10 clients to date.
Speaking about the product Abhishek Agrawal, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Tezminds, the parent company of Neurotags, said that there are two security coupled tags, one at the packaging level and other at the product level. “While the packaging level tag would just reveal the details of the product, the product level tag will have to found out by the user after scratching it to then scan and find the genuineness of the product,” said Agrawal.
The COO said that for products like cement or agro-chemical products the tag has to be placed on the packaging.
Yogesh Miharia, Co-Founder and Chief Sales Officer (CSO) of the company said that once a user scans both product level code, both the codes on a particular item becomes null and void. “The chances of a code being repeated is at least not in a million years, which makes it protected from copying by fraudsters. The product is a combination of Artificial Intelligence (AI), block chain and cloud computing,” said Yogesh.
Speaking about the security of the product, the COO said that the product is on an Amazon Cloud which is pretty safe. The company is currently planning to focus on domains like pharmaceuticals, electronics, agro-chemicals and is also exploring ways to cater to other domains.
“Our tags can fit for all domains. For a particular customer, we will have to do minor modifications. The execution time for any company would be around two to three weeks. Our product is compatible enough to blend at a client site. For products in the rural area, consumers can send alphanumeric code on the product through SMS to test the genuineness of the product,” added Yogesh.
Speaking about counterfeit products, Abhishek said that it is the customer who needs to become aware and buy a genine product.”In cases of food products, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, where the consumer is using the product on himself, he should take enough care to buy a genuine product. The cost of neurotags will be approximately 0.05 per cent of cost price for a product worth Rs 100,” added Abhishek.
While the product is designed to fight against counterfeit products, the tags will also help to collect consumer data which will be beneficial for the manufacturers.
