India’s Anti-Counterfeiting Push: Covert Tech and Digital Trust

The problems being solved

The counterfeit crisis in India is pervasive. Close to nine in ten urban consumers admit to purchasing a fake product at least once, and more than half of these purchases now happen through online aggregators. Apparel and pharmaceuticals are among the hardest-hit categories. The problems span from consumer health risks—especially with spurious medicines—to brand erosion and economic loss. Security documents like banknotes and identity cards also face sophisticated forgery, demanding ever more complex visual and magnetic features. Physical objects, from plastic containers to ceramic décor, need unique, hard-to-replicate identifiers. And supply chains lack real-time visibility, allowing counterfeits to slip in undetected.

• Consumer fraud and health risks from fake medicines
• Difficulty distinguishing genuine from counterfeit at point of sale
• Vulnerability of banknotes and ID documents to advanced replication
• Infiltration of counterfeits into supply chains via e-commerce

How the field is solving it

Indian innovators are weaving together digital and physical defenses. On the digital side, blockchain creates immutable records for each product, while QR codes and AI-powered image analysis let consumers and inspectors verify authenticity in real time. On the physical side, security documents are getting multi-layered features: color-shifting inks that dance when tilted, magnetic threads with alternating coercivity, and diffractive structures that produce dynamic visual effects. Covert taggants—like upconversion phosphors that emit visible light under infrared—are being embedded into packaging and labels, invisible to the naked eye but detectable with specialized readers. Advanced imaging techniques, including terahertz and matrix-array proximity sensors, are making it possible to read hidden patterns even when marks are distorted. And consumer-friendly tools, from talking pens that speak a product’s authenticity to audio-based verification, are lowering the barrier for everyday use.

• Blockchain and QR codes for immutable traceability
• Multi-layered optical and magnetic security features on banknotes
• Covert luminescent taggants for invisible authentication
• Terahertz imaging and distortion-tolerant algorithms for robust reading
• Consumer tools like talking pens and audio verification

Where the market is heading

The global anti-counterfeiting packaging market is pegged between roughly USD 170 billion and USD 200 billion, expanding at a double-digit annual clip (Fortune Business Insights, InsightAce Analytic). Within that, brand protection features alone account for around USD 4 billion (Smithers). In India, the urgency is palpable: a recent survey indicates that three in four consumers feel counterfeiting has worsened over the past year. This is pushing a shift from overt holograms to covert technologies, as generative AI makes overt features easier to replicate. Digital authentication via smartphones is gaining ground, and blockchain-based traceability is moving from pilot to production. Regulatory pressure and consumer demand for authenticity are accelerating adoption, especially in pharmaceuticals and apparel. The annual Anti-Counterfeiting & Brand Protection India Summit draws major brand owners, signaling a market that is rapidly professionalizing.

The white space

The biggest opportunity lies in making authentication affordable enough for fast-moving consumer goods—everyday items where margins are thin but counterfeit risk is high. Another gap is connectivity: solutions that work offline or with basic feature phones could unlock trust in rural and semi-urban markets where internet penetration is still patchy. Integrating digital, physical, and covert methods into a single, easy-to-adopt platform remains an open challenge; manufacturers need a plug-and-play stack rather than piecemeal tools. Finally, the cold chain and perishables sector is crying out for anti-counterfeiting that also monitors tampering and real-time conditions, combining authenticity with safety.

Explore the innovators

Behind these advances are inventors filing patents for everything from crack-pattern security labels to blockchain-anchored QR systems. The full landscape of Indian innovators—their patents, approaches, and the problems they’re tackling—is available to explore on Deeptech Navigator. Dive in to see who is building the next layer of trust.

In our data

Sources

• Anti-counterfeiting Technologies ↗
• Advantages of Covert Anti-Counterfeiting Technology ↗
• Anti counterfeiting technology companies ↗
• A Supply Chain Management Perspective on Mitigating the ... ↗
• Resilient by design: The agentic supply chain ↗
• Traceability and Anti-Counterfeiting in Agri-Food Supply Chains ↗
• The Future of Anti-Counterfeiting, Brand Protection and Security ... ↗
• Anti-Counterfeiting Packaging Market Size and Share [2034] ↗