Our little adjustable wrench on a green background is gaining traction. While the repairability index set up since 2021 is still struggling to establish itself in the daily lives of the French, this does not prevent it from inspiring governments beyond our borders. At the end of August 2024, the Indian government indicated its intention to set up an index modeled on what is done in France.
As the prestigious Times of India explains, a signage reflecting the repairability of electronic products will be put in place across the country in the coming months.As India is poised to become the world’s third largest economy, we need to have a real ecosystem for repairability” proclaimed Nidhi Khare, Secretary of State for Consumer Protection.
Grades from 1 to 5
Concretely, the Indian index will be based on the same foundations as the French one. The ease of dismantling the device, the availability of spare parts as well as their prices and the provision or not of documentation dedicated to repairability will be judged. The only small difference is that the scores will go from 1 to 5 where they go from 1 to 10 in France. It should also be noted that only electronic devices seem to be concerned for the moment, but that the possibility of extending the measurement to the remains of everyday devices, and even cars, is being considered.
The similarity of these methods is clearly not due to chance. Anupam Mishra, assistant to the Secretary of State, acknowledged having been inspired by the French index, while looking closely at what Europe is preparing for its sustainability index. The latter in fact integrates more criteria in the calculation of the final score. The idea is to then display this score next to all the products concerned to promote repairability among consumers.
What to put pressure on manufacturers?
The project is not limited to a simple label stuck next to the price. The government also wants to bring in more “original” spare parts, educate the public on repairability issues, push for greater interoperability of parts between devices and encourage the development of local repairers throughout the country. A challenge in a territory 4 times larger than France and 22 times more populated.
For the moment, the Indian government has been content to put online a portal centralizing all the information available on the repair of everyday devices. 63 companies, including 23 electronics manufacturers, participated in its development. An idea also present in the European text on the right to repair very recently adopted.
With the support of a country as important as India and the many laws adopted in certain American states, the right to repair now seems well established across the globe. Enough to put pressure on manufacturers who were still neglecting this aspect when it only concerned the 67 million or so French consumers. Soon there will be 1.5 billion people who will have the little label under their eyes almost every day.