India’s Right to Repair Initiative Emphasizes Knowledge Preservation

In May 2025, the Indian government took a significant step toward enhancing sustainable electronics by accepting a report that proposes a Repairability Index for mobile phones and appliances. This initiative aims to rank products based on their ease of repair, availability of spare parts, and software support. Alongside these steps, new electronic waste policies will introduce minimum payments to incentivise formal recycling. As India embraces the concept of repair as a consumer right, it is equally important to acknowledge repair as a cultural and intellectual resource that deserves preservation and support.

India’s digital and Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy landscape is changing rapidly. Initiatives such as the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and the National Strategy on Artificial Intelligence (NSAI) focus on innovation, data-driven governance, and economic efficiency. However, the informal repair and maintenance economy—essential for the everyday functioning of technology—remains largely overlooked in digital and policy frameworks.

In an era dominated by cloud backups and algorithms, it is easy to overlook the immense value of knowledge that cannot be easily codified. Much of India’s repair expertise relies on muscle memory, keen observation, and years of hands-on experience. This tacit knowledge is crucial to India’s material resilience, as demonstrated by mobile repairers in Delhi’s Karol Bagh and appliance technicians in Chennai’s Ritchie Street. They keep devices operational long after their planned obsolescence. “If we don’t fix it, who will?” says a mobile repairer in Ritchie Street. “People throw things out. But we see what can be made new.”

While their workshops may be modest and their tools simple, these repairers demonstrate remarkable ingenuity. They restore devices not by consulting manuals but by diagnosing faults through sensory cues, reusing components, and creatively adapting to constraints. Unfortunately, this ecosystem is gradually eroding. With product designs becoming less repairable and consumer habits shifting toward disposability, informal repairers are finding it increasingly difficult to access markets, skill-building programmes, and policy attention.

As a result, a vital reservoir of undocumented knowledge that has long supported India’s technological resilience is at risk of being lost.

Preserving Tacit Knowledge in Repair Work

“I learnt by watching my uncle,” shares an appliance repairer from Bhopal. “He never explained with words. He just showed me once and expected me to try. That’s how we pass it on.” Tacit knowledge encompasses skills and intuition that are challenging to formalise. In India’s repair economy, this expertise is typically transmitted through mentorship, observation, and repetition rather than formal training or certification.

This knowledge is inherently adaptive and context-sensitive. However, structured digital systems, including AI, often struggle to replicate these qualities. As AI continues to evolve, it increasingly relies on insights shaped by this kind of informal labour. Unfortunately, mechanisms to recognise or equitably involve contributors of this knowledge are still developing, leading to a growing imbalance: while AI systems improve, the communities enabling that learning often remain unrecognised.

Globally, the Right to Repair movement has gained traction. The European Union has recently enacted rules requiring manufacturers to provide access to spare parts and repair documentation. Likewise, India’s Department of Consumer Affairs launched a Right to Repair framework in 2022, followed by a national portal in 2023 that covers electronics, automobiles, and agricultural equipment. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12 further promotes repair as part of responsible consumption.

India now has the opportunity to lead by recognising repair not just as a service but also as a form of knowledge work.

Addressing E-Waste and Repair Policy Gaps

In 2021-2022, India generated over 1.6 million tonnes of e-waste, making it the world’s third-largest producer. The E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022, introduced Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which holds manufacturers accountable for product management after use. However, while these regulations encourage recycling, they only briefly mention repair as a preventive strategy.

National skilling initiatives, such as the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), focus on short-term certifications for formal industrial roles. Repair work, which demands improvisation, diagnostic skills, and creative reuse, does not easily fit into this framework. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, while celebrating Indian knowledge traditions and experiential learning, provides little guidance on supporting or transmitting hands-on repair expertise.

While campaigns like Mission LiFE (LiFEStyle For Environment) promote repair and reuse, complementary efforts are necessary to support the workers who enable these sustainability practices. As policies increasingly advocate for circularity, they risk neglecting the very workforce whose skills make such initiatives feasible. As sustainability becomes a national priority, policymakers and technologists are reassessing how we design, discard, and extend the life of everyday products.

One emerging research concept is “unmaking,” which involves disassembling, repairing, or repurposing devices after initial use. This approach reveals design flaws and opportunities for reuse. Breakdowns and repairs should not be seen as failures; instead, they serve as feedback loops and sources of practical insight. A discarded circuit board can become a teaching tool, while a salvaged phone part can restore someone’s access to work or education.

The daily work of informal repairers places them at the heart of the circular economy, where reuse is a foundational principle rather than an afterthought. Recognising them as stewards of sustainability can reshape perspectives on both environmental and digital innovation.

As India invests in AI infrastructure and digital public goods, there is a pressing need to align these ambitions with the realities of repair. Current designs of modern gadgets often favour compactness and control over repairability. According to a 2023 iFixit global report, only 23% of smartphones sold in Asia are easily repairable due to design constraints.

To foster genuine sustainability, public policy must consider not only how products are manufactured and used but also how they break down, are repaired, and find new life. A transition towards designing for “unmaking,” where disassembly and repair are anticipated from the outset, should inform hardware standards and AI-integrated systems.

This shift will require coordinated institutional action. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology can embed repairability criteria into AI and procurement policies. The Department of Consumer Affairs could expand the Right to Repair framework to include product classification and community involvement. Platforms like e-Shram, under the Ministry of Labour and Employment, can formally recognise informal repairers and connect them to social protection and skill-building schemes.

Moreover, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship can develop training programmes that account for the tacit, diagnostic nature of repair work, which does not conform to standardised industrial templates. Decision trees can help codify typical repair pathways, while Large Language Models can capture, summarise, and translate tacit repair narratives into structured, shareable knowledge, enabling broader learning without stripping away local context or expertise.

Supporting this ecosystem is not just about intellectual property or technical efficiency. It involves valuing the quiet, embodied labour that sustains our digital and material lives—an essential step toward a just, repair-ready technological future. As philosopher Michael Polanyi noted, “We know more than we can tell.” By choosing to remember what cannot be digitised, we preserve the human wisdom necessary for a meaningful technological future.

Kinnari Gatare is a researcher in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and a former UX Design Consultant at the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.