{"id":33633,"date":"2022-12-24T03:07:22","date_gmt":"2022-12-23T21:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=33633"},"modified":"2025-04-20T00:10:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T18:40:06","slug":"right-to-repair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/right-to-repair\/","title":{"rendered":"Right to Repair"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the right to repair movement?\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the goal of the right to repair movement?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the significance of the right to repair?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Why do electronic manufacturers oppose this movement?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>News Summary<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Amid the right to repair movement in different parts of the world and National Consumer Day (December 24), the Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister recently announced a &#8216;right to repair&#8217; portal in India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the right to repair movement?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>When the average consumer buys electronic equipment, they are aware that it will quickly <strong>become obsolete when the maker introduces newer versions<\/strong> of the same device.<\/li>\n<li>As the item ages, problems arise, and one is <strong>left at the mercy of manufacturers<\/strong>, who make repairs inaccessible to the majority by dictating who can service your equipment and making it an extremely expensive process.<\/li>\n<li>This is a question that advocates of the <strong>global &#8216;right to repair&#8217; movement<\/strong> have been dealing with for decades.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Countries all across the world (including US, UK) have been striving to implement effective &#8216;right to repair&#8217; laws in recent years.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the goal of the right to repair movement?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The goal of right to repair movement is to get companies to make <strong>spare parts, tools and information on how to repair devices available<\/strong> to customers and repair shops to increase the lifespan of products and to keep them from ending up in landfills.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the significance of the right to repair?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Reduce pollution and wastage of resources: <\/strong>The electronic manufacturers are encouraging a culture of \u2018<strong>planned obsolescence<\/strong>\u2019 &#8211; which means that devices are designed specifically to last a limited amount of time and to be replaced. This leads to immense <strong>pressure on the environment<\/strong> (as manufacturing and disposing an electronic device is a highly polluting process) and <strong>wastes natural resources.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Boost business for small repair shops<\/strong>, which are an important part of local economies.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>Improves quality and reduces prices: <\/strong>If a manufacturer has monopoly on repairs, then prices rise exponentially and quality tends to drop.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why do electronic manufacturers oppose this movement?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>However, it is unsurprising that the movement has <strong>met with fierce opposition from IT giants <\/strong>such as Apple and Microsoft over the years.<\/li>\n<li>Their argument is that <strong>opening up their intellectual property to third party<\/strong> repair services or amateur repairers could lead to exploitation and impact the safety and security of their devices.<\/li>\n<li>These companies are constantly claiming that they are working towards greater durability themselves.<strong> For example,<\/strong> recently Apple took more steps towards reducing its contribution to e-waste.\u00a0\n<p>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/p9tRmgYVCy1LuyD3DirnP1Hpc1r9ZQhxOF5K8f0uunTKAqA3xw5sFJoXUShJFIFY6SUFLBSddsN72ocKi0Mull9rVB59WQJMqTF1Y4hS9ZXf2iNaic_tU3Cq4JM7yxt1MQXonDKEjmjem8DlBxOpYg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\nImage Caption: Repair Manifesto<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>News Summary<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Background:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Earlier, the Union government set up a <strong>committee (<\/strong>headed by Nidhi Khare<strong>) <\/strong>to develop the \u201c<strong>comprehensive framework<\/strong>\u201d on the Right to Repair.<\/li>\n<li>The sectors identified include Farming Equipment, Mobile Phones\/ Tablets, Consumer Durables and Automobiles\/Automobile Equipment.<\/li>\n<li>The framework is an attempt t<strong>o reduce restrictive practices implemented by some manufacturers<\/strong> in order for consumers to repair goods such as consumer durables, phones, and automobiles on their own.<\/li>\n<li>The framework will become a \u201cgame-changer\u201d for the sustainability of the products and serve as a catalyst for employment generation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>The committee:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Pointed to practices such as <strong>planned obsolescence and creation of monopolies on spare parts<\/strong> while stressing on the need to give consumers the <strong>right to choose how they get products fixed\/right to repair.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Flagged how consumers often lose the right to claim a warranty if they get a product repaired from a non-recognized outfit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>About the right to repair portal:\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The portal will allow manufacturers to share the manual of product details with customers, allowing them to repair a product themselves or through third parties rather than relying on original manufacturers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>With this, India has joined a clutch of countries like the <strong>US and the UK <\/strong>that offer this facility.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) When did the right to repair movement begin?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The concept of the right to repair originated in the United States, where the Motor Vehicle Owners&#8217; Right to Repair Act of 2012 compelled manufacturers to release the necessary documentation and information so that anybody may repair their vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) Does India need a right to repair legislation?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The \u2018right to repair\u2019 is not yet recognised as a statutory right in India.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-what-is-the-right-to-repair-movement-7400287\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Explained: What is the \u2018right to repair\u2019 movement?<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Right to Repair requires companies to make information on how to repair devices available to customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33633","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}