The ‘right to repair’ must include ‘right to remember’, Pg 10.

Key Highlights:

• Government accepted proposal for a Repairability Index to rank products on repair ease, spare parts access, and software support.
• New e-waste rules include minimum payments to incentivise formal recycling.
• India is the third-largest e-waste producer globally, generating over 1.6 million tonnes in 2021–22.
• Right to Repair framework launched in 2022; national portal introduced in 2023.
• Informal repair sector remains invisible in digital and policy frameworks despite its central role.
• Informal repairers face exclusion due to non-repairable product design and lack of policy support.
• Policies like PMKVY and NEP 2020 do not fully accommodate tacit, hands-on skills of informal workers.

Detailed Insights:

• Tacit Knowledge in repair work, passed through mentorship and observation, is critical but lacks formal recognition or policy integration.
• Informal repairers enable circular economy goals by extending product lifecycles, yet face marginalisation amid rapid digitisation.
• India’s Digital Public Infrastructure and National AI Strategy overlook contributions of non-formal repair knowledge systems.
• Global models like the EU's repair access laws and UN SDG 12 highlight repair as core to responsible consumption.
• AI and digital tools can help codify tacit repair knowledge, aiding training without erasing local expertise.
• Ministries like MeitY, Labour, Consumer Affairs, and Skill Development must collaborate to integrate repair into procurement, training, and social protection policies.

Concepts Involved:

• Repairability Index: A metric to evaluate the ease of repairing a device based on spare parts availability, documentation, and design.
• Tacit Knowledge: Skills and know-how acquired through experience and practice, not easily documented or formalised.
• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): Policy approach where producers are made responsible for managing post-consumer waste.
• Circular Economy: An economic system aimed at eliminating waste through reuse, repair, and recycling of products.