Articles by Utkarsha Srivastava

Since the inception of the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) for digital payments, users no longer need to download multiple payment applications. Using one payment gateway network, money can be easily transferred to different accounts through varied gateways, keeping it smooth and hassle free. Taking this concept further, the union government recently introduced the Open Network for Digital Commerce, or ONDC, to encourage digital payments for purchase of goods and services while making the process convenient, easy and smooth for both buyers and sellers. It is argued that the ONDC will be the UPI of e-commerce and shift the paradigm of…

Brushing aside all concerns about privacy and potential misuse of sensitive personal information, including biometric details, the new Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022, that replaces the colonial era Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920, breezed through both houses of Parliament and is now the law of the land with the President giving his assent to the Bill. The new Bill does not only authorise collection of certain identifiable information about specified persons, such as convicts, for criminal investigation purposes. It expands the ambit of such personal details and the persons from whom such details can be taken. The National Crime Records…

As Indian cities move towards electric vehicles (EV) for public and private transport, the question of easy and convenient electric vehicle charging in cities becomes paramount. The latest union budget has chipped in to hasten this by announcing a battery swapping policy and interoperability standards. The policy is to ensure all EV manufacturers use standardised, removable/disposable batteries while reducing the cost of EV ownership by negating the need to purchase a new battery, the most expensive component of an EV. This, it is hoped, will incentivise improving electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure across the country. Currently, India is the world’s fifth…

To clear the air over speculation on the status of cryptocurrencies, Budget 2022 imposed a 30% tax on income from virtual digital assets (VDA) and announced the launch of digital rupee later this year. But, a few questions remain unanswered, especially on the definition of cryptocurrency. And what terms like blockchain and NFTs mean. The concepts of fungible and non-fungible have been around for some time now. In economic terms, fungible tokens or assets are products which are non-unique and interchangeable with something of equivalent value. They are transferable, tangible in nature and their value remains constant. For example, a…

Despite the dangers they pose to life and limb, Indians have learned to live with the potholes that abound in most roads in every city. According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, potholes accounted for 3,564 road accidents in 2020, though the the exact number of deaths from these accidents is not known. But despite these appalling numbers, there is a complete lack of explicit or specific legislation dealing with accountability for deaths or injuries caused by potholes that are the result of poor quality work and lack of maintenance by the municipal authorities concerned. Can government or…

The new set of Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Amendment Rules, 2021 released by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has raised a storm of protest from other ministries, e-commerce platforms and IT industry trade body Nasscom. Given the huge spurt in e-commerce transactions since the pandemic, especially in the supply of essential goods and services, the new rules aim to protect the interests of consumers using the various e-commerce platforms. India registered a growth in e-com transactions of 36% in 2020, amounting to approximately 80 billion dollars and still counting. The main issue is that e-commerce does not have…

Within weeks of the terror attack on a Jammu air force base using drones, the Ministry of Civil Aviation, on July 15th, released a new set of Draft Drone Rules, 2021. While inviting public comments on the draft rules, the ministry said that the new rules are built on a premise of trust, self-certification and non-intrusive monitoring and will replace the existing Unmanned Aircraft Existing Rules, 2021, which had been released in March 2021. The ministry has been working towards developing a world class drone ecosystem in India. But formulating the rules took time as drone technologies have constantly been…

After years of preparation and drafting, the union government has finally given the green light to a Model Tenancy Act (MTA) 2021, which aims to make rent laws more equitable for landlord and tenant, and smoothen the processing of renting a home. Such an act had become necessary to achieve the target of constructing 20 million houses for the urban poor by 2022 under the Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana. The 2011 census had recorded a total of 246.69 million households, of which 68% were rural and 32% urban, leaving 63.67 million urban and rural families without adequate housing. In India,…

With everything in short supply — hospital beds, ICU beds, medicines, vaccines and even crematoriums and burial sites — desperate patients and citizen groups who were getting no help from the state appealed to the courts hoping they could force the government to get its act together. The Supreme Court and some High Courts also took suo moto notice of the situation and passed orders stressing upon governments’ responsibilities and actions to be taken. One significant, if controversial, step taken early by the Supreme Court was to take cognizance of issues on COVID-19 pending before six High Courts, Delhi, Bombay,…

Phase III of the country's largest vaccination drive has been officially launched from May 1, 2021, where the youth of the country aged between 18 to 44 years will get themselves vaccinated. Remember, the vaccine, whichever you take, does not make you immune from the virus. But it does reduce the severity of its effects. With the new order, the government has made it compulsory for all above 18 years to get vaccinated. However, due to the surge of COVID cases in India, a few states have delayed the vaccination drive, though registrations began on April 28, 2021. This has…