Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, Judge, Supreme Court of India today said counterfeiting is cancerous to the society and constant vigilance is required to restrict the menace.

Speaking on the concluding day of two-day MASCRADE 2019, organized by FICCI CASCADE (Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Activities Destroying the Economy), Justice Lalit said, "Counterfeiting is like a cancerous cell eating into the body of the society."

"Judiciary, executive and legislature must work together to stop the menace of counterfeiting and smuggling. There must be a body to conduct constant and vigilant monitoring to curb counterfeiting before it takes place," Justice Lalit said in his valedictory address.

MASCRADE 2019 (Movement Against Smuggled and Counterfeit Trade), organized for national and international stakeholders to identify opportunities for joint actions, deliberated on policies needed to curb counterfeiting, smuggling and piracy.

Over the last two days, the conference looked at the economic consequences of the illegal trade, deepened the understanding of grey market, assessed the impact and tried to provide practical recommendations, and contributed to an integrated vision of security and public safety.

Balesh Kumar, Director General, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) said, "FICCI CASCADE is a unique initiative to create a smuggling, piracy and counterfeit free country. To curb the effect of counterfeiting and smuggling, we need more and frequent interactions with government bodies and stakeholders. Such interaction will help us to contain the menace and achieve the target of a 5 trillion-dollar economy".

Muktesh Chandra, Special Commissioner of Police (Operations), Delhi Police said, "The Internet offers an unprecedented anonymity to criminals and it becomes difficult for us to detect illegal financial transactions. We require certainty of punishment along with severity of punishment to control cybercrimes."

Various issues such as Balanced, Holistic and Futuristic Strategies; Balancing Brand Security Strategies and Actionable on Ground Operations; Attacking the Roots of Organized Crime; and Policy and Regulatory Framework needed to Stop Counterfeiting, Smuggling and Piracy from Entering the Virtual Marketplace were discussed.

The conference saw a host of notable international speakers from INTERPOL, US Intellectual Property-South Asia, UK Intellectual Property Office, Australian Border Force, HM Revenue and Customs and US Homeland Security, and captains from the industry across sectors.