Context

• As India advances its digital public infrastructure and Al strategies, there is a growing need to integrate grassroots repair ecosystems into policy frameworks. This editorial advocates for recognising the tacit knowledge embedded in India's informal repair economy and aligning it with sustainability and digital innovation goals. 

Background

• In May 2025, India accepted a report to develop a Repairability Index to rate mobile phones and appliances based on repair ease, spare parts access, and software support.
• This move complements e-waste policy changes that include minimum incentives for formal recycling.
• India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and Al strategy highlight innovation and efficiency but often exclude the informal repair economy that sustains everyday resilience. 

Government Initiatives

• Right to Repair: Legislative initiative empowering consumers to repair and modify their electronic devices independently. 
• Repairability index: A compulsory label that manufacturers must display on electrical and electronic devices, indicating how easily the product can be repaired. 
• E-Waste (Management) 2022 Rules: Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): Producers must meet annual recycling targets via registered recyclers. EPR certificates ensure recycling accountability. 
• E-Waste (Management) 2023 Rules: Refrigerant Management: Clause added under Rule 5 to ensure safe and sustainable refrigerant handling in cooling appliance manufacturing. 
• E-Waste (Management) 2024 Rules: EPR Certificate Trading: Government  may establish trading platforms as per CPCB guidelines. 
• Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) -- Launched at: COP26, Glasgow (Nov 2021) by Indian PM. 
• Objective: Promote individual and community-based sustainable lifestyles globally.
• Core Principle: Pro-Planet People (P3 model).

Challenges Highlighted

• Erosion of Repair Ecosystems: Informal repairers face marginalisation due to complex, non-repairable product designs and changing consumer habits. Their tacit, undocumented knowledge is being lost amidst Al-driven systems and disposable culture. 
• Tacit Knowledge is undervalued: Skills are passed via observation and mentorship, not certification hard to formalise within current training models. Al and tech systems often benefit from this kind of labour but fail to recognise or reward it.
• Blind Spots in Policy: India generated 1.6 million tonnes of e-waste in 2021–22, third-highest globally. - 
• E-waste rules focus on recycling, barely mentioning repair.
• Skill development schemes (e.g., PMKVY) and education reforms (NEP 2020) overlook informal, experiential learning in repair work. 
• Existing sustainability campaigns like Mission LiFE need stronger links with grassroots repairers. 
• Lack of Institutional Recognition: Informal repairers remain outside the formal workforce and social security nets. Digital products are not designed for easy disassembly, limiting reuse and learning.

Way Forward

• Policy Alignment with Ground Realities: Embed repairability norms in procurement and product design policies. Encourage "designing for unmaking" and reuse from the outset.
• Institutional Actions Suggested: MeitY: Integrate repairability in Al and hardware standards. 
• - Department of Consumer Affairs: Expand the Right to Repair to include community involvement. 
• - Ministry of Labour: Use e-Shram to register informal repairers and extend social benefits. 
• - MSDE: Update skilling models to accommodate improvisational and diagnostic repair methods. 
• Leveraging Al for Repair Equity: Use LLMs (Large Language Models) to codify and translate tacit repair knowledge into structured datasets for training without losing local context. Develop decision-free models to support real-time repair diagnostics.
• Cultural and Educational Shifts: Recognise repair as knowledge work, not just manual labour. View breakdowns and repairs as design feedback loops, not product failures.