Product Recalls: Their Avocado Hand. Our Dream-Achilles Heel

While incentives, red-tape reduction, and infrastructure support strengthen the Make-in-India initiative, there’s still a critical gap to firmly position ourselves in the evolving global manufacturing landscape. Could a robust focus on safety be the key to achieving this transformation, moving beyond mere surface improvements?

- Pratima H

Safety is a word spelt differently in the post-Boeing defect world. Not just in the jet-setting skyline but in almost every corner of our lives where electronics purr and technology whirs.

From air fryers to children’s products to car keys to oximeters to SUVs to vehicle parts to entertainment systems to various household appliances- product recalls have become more of a norm than an exception in the last two years.

Product recall hit a five-year high in 2023 – and covering all stripes of industries (automotive, consumer products, food and drink, medical devices and pharmaceuticals) as surmised in Sedgwick’s 2024 State of the Nation report. Note that quality concerns with medical devices were the reason for 152 recalls or 15.6 per cent of the total. In the case of EVs, Electrical system issues were the leading case of automotive recalls, responsible for 193 recalls, or 21.2 per cent of the total.

As of 2024, about 121 consumer product recall notices were issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) (from January-March, 2024). In February 2024 alone, the EU recalled 257 products in 17 categories with electrical appliances accounting for 42 recalls – as per Helmsman Quality & Technology Services or HQTS ‘Identification of Unsafe Products’ report Feb 24.