The Hindu Editorial Vocabulary – Set 59

The Hindu Editorial Vocabulary Words with Meanings for various Exams: SBI PO/Clerk, IBPS PO/Clerk, RRB, RBI, LIC, NABARD, SEBI, SSC, UPSC, IPPB, etc.

We are providing vocabulary words from the Editorial articles in The Hindu newspaper which is important for all the upcoming competitive exams. Add some more words to your English vocabulary words list.

 

TOPIC – Policy creep

 

Barely 11 months after the Government notified the Consumer Protection (E­Commerce) Rules, 2020, the Department of Consumer Affairs has mooted a set of sweeping amendments, ostensibly “to protect the interests of consumers… and encourage free and fair competition in the market”. Among them is a norm stipulating the appointment of a chief compliance officer, a nodal contact person for 24×7 coordination with law enforcement agencies, and another requiring e­commerce entities offering imported goods or services to ‘incorporate a filter mechanism to identify goods based on country of origin and suggest alternatives to ensure a fair opportunity to domestic goods. A third mandates a fall­back liability on online market places in the event of non-delivery of goods or services to the consumer. Registration has also been made mandatory for all e­commerce players; specific ‘flash sales’, including ‘back-to-back’ ones, are set to be banned; and all entities must provide information within 72 hours on any request made by an authorized government agency probing any breach of the law including cybersecurity issues. While on the face of it none of these new rules appears exceptionable, especially when e­commerce tops the National Consumer Helpline’s complaints chart, there is still a distinctly discernible pattern to the changes. Following on the heels of the recent IT ( Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, the draft e­commerce amendments show the Government’s increasing keenness to exercise greater oversight over all online platforms. The Centre also appears to be signaling its intent to dig in its heels in an intensifying stand­off with Walmart’s unit Flipkart, and Amazon, which is both now in court battling an attempt by the Competition Commission of India to reopen a probe into their business practices. The two large e­commerce players have had to contend with accusations that their pricing practices are skewed to favor select sellers on their platforms and that their discounting policies have hurt offline retailers. The fact that the latest changes expressly seek to ensure that none of an e­commerce entity’s ‘related parties and associated enterprises is enlisted as a seller for sale to consumers directly’ could also impact several platforms that retail products supplied by vendors with arm’s length ties. The enforcement of many of these norms is bound to spur protracted legal fights. Asserting that the amendments were not aimed at conventional flash sales, the Government said it was only targeting certain entities engaged in limiting consumer choice by indulging in ‘back-to-back’ sales wherein a seller does not have the capability to meet an order. In trying to address shortcomings in its rules from last year, the Government appears to be harking back to an era of tight controls. Overregulation with scope for interpretative ambiguity risks retarding growth and job creation in the hitherto expanding e­commerce sector.

 

The Hindu Editorial Words with meanings, synonyms, and antonyms 

 

Mooted (verb) – To suggest an idea that is to be considered or discussed by people

Synonyms – Debate, deliberate, ventilated, agitated, cogitated

Antonyms – Disregard, restrain, withhold, hinder, halt

 

Ostensibly (adverb) – From appearances alone

Synonyms – Outwardly, superficially, evidently, flimsily, alleged

Antonyms – Improbably, trivially, authentically, concretely, obscurely

 

Discernible (adjective) – Capable of being seen

Synonyms – Perceivable, conspicuous, palpable, blatant, overt

Antonyms – Faint, indiscernible, vague, cagey, sixpenny

 

Intensifying (adjective) – Increasing in strength

Synonyms – Cumulative, escalating, aggravating, enhancive, augment

Antonyms – Abating, alleviative, frumpish, palliative, attrition

 

Contend (verb) – Have an argument about something

Synonyms – Assert, insist, grapple, aver, strive

Antonyms – Acquiesce, cede, assail, capitulate, controvert

 

Accusations (noun) – An assertion that someone is guilty of a fault

Synonyms – Recrimination, indictments, citations, denunciations, litigations

Antonyms – Tributes, pleas, verdicts, compliments, arguments

 

Skewed (adjective) – Having an oblique

Synonyms – Biased, slanted, awry, crooked, prejudiced

Antonyms – Coextensive, congruous, detached, incontinently

 

Protracted (adjective) – Relatively long in duration

Synonyms – Prolix, deferred, verbose, elongate, persistent

Antonyms – Fleeting, boisterous, miniature, paltry, meager

 

Ambiguity (noun) – An expression whose meaning cannot be determined from its context

Synonyms – Equivocation, obscurity, enigma, dubiety, incertitude

Antonyms – Explicitness, lucidity, perspicuity, articulateness, limpidity

 

Retarding (verb) – To delay something or make its development or progress slower

Synonyms – Decelerate, impede, stalling, impeding, procrastinating

Antonyms – Begetting, effectuating, invoking, spawning, hastening

 

Hitherto (adverb) – Used in negative statement to describe a situation that has existed up to this point

Synonyms – Beforehand, erstwhile, heretofore, up till now

Antonyms – Bubbling, thenceforward, effervescent, fizzy, jittery

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