Despite a 2014 initiative by the ministry of law and justice that mandated pre-legislative consultation, in most instances the process is largely superficial. We need a more genuine and constructive engagement from both the government and stakeholders, emphasizing compromise and understanding. The government should actively facilitate pre-legislative consultation, evaluate competing suggestions, and align decisions with democratic values to ensure more meaningful participation in policy-making.

The public credit registry (PCR), a centralized credit information system, would improve data quality and help borrowers build reputational collateral. However, a PCR alone isn’t sufficient; lenders also need information on borrowers’ financial assets. The Reserve Bank of India’s account aggregator infrastructure addresses this by allowing borrowers to share financial asset information securely and with consent. While this system limits data misuse, it requires robust legal frameworks to ensure data is used only for intended purposes.

Algorithmic sentencing, using machine learning to assess recidivism risk, has demonstrated consistent outcomes. But is not without flaws, sometimes reflecting human biases. Despite imperfections, I believe algorithms can introduce objectivity and be fine-tuned to reduce biases, making them more reliable than human judgment.

India’s restriction on foreign investment in retail, extended to e-commerce, led to complex structures to navigate the limitation. The government’s recent regulations, instead of simplifying the policy, have endorsed the marketplace model, potentially leading to ongoing convoluted practices that may hinder consumer benefits and business ease.

The Lok Sabha passed the Aadhaar Amendment Bill, aiming to facilitate the continued use of Aadhaar within constraints set by the Supreme Court. The bill emphasizes voluntary use, gives statutory legitimacy to offline verification, strengthens privacy provisions, and controversially allows the private sector to regain access to Aadhaar infrastructure.

Mobile phones provide opportunities to obtain real-time movement information, aiding in crisis management like tracking disease spread. However, the balance between utilizing this data and ensuring privacy is complex. Current anonymization methods are inadequate, and conscientious use obligations may be a more effective approach to protect privacy.

This year marked a significant shift in global privacy regulation, with the enforcement of Europe’s GDPR and similar laws in other regions. While focusing on consent, the inadequacy of this approach was exposed by tech companies’ practices. In India, the privacy debate intensified with court decisions on Aadhaar and the release of the Justice Srikrishna Committee’s draft bill.

For the past 12,000 years, Earth’s circular orbit has provided stable temperatures, fostering the Holocene era, crucial for human development and agriculture. This unique period of warmth, longer than previous interglacials, is threatened by human-induced climate change, with CO2 levels exceeding safe limits. The transition to the Anthropocene era, marked by significant human impact, necessitates urgent global action on sustainability and emissions reduction, as highlighted in recent international agreements and commitments by various US entities, despite federal resistance.

The intricate, global supply chains and specialized production processes in modern industry, poses challenges - especially in pharmaceutical manufacturing, where supply chain disruptions can be life-threatening. Recent developments in continuous, on-demand drug manufacturing, like MIT’s compact synthesis unit, offer revolutionary solutions but clash with current regulatory frameworks, necessitating regulatory adaptation to embrace these technological advancements.

Chinese researcher He Jiankui’s use of CRISPR-Cas9 technology to edit a human embryo has sparked international condemnation. The editing, aimed at disabling a gene to increase resistance to diseases like AIDS, raises ethical concerns, risks unforeseen consequences, and highlights the need for a formal global treaty on gene editing.