Private Member Bill on Right to Disconnect | Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhikshan Bill

Private Member Bill on Right to Disconnect

Polity & Governance

Context

• A private member bill “Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025”, reintroduced in the Lok Sabha.

Right to Disconnect

• The Right to Disconnect refers to an employee’s right to not engage in work-related communications—such as calls, emails, or messages—outside official working hours.
• It aims to protect workers from excessive digital connectivity and ensure a healthy work–life balance.

Key Features of the Bill

• The draft legislation proposes giving workers the legal right to ignore official communication outside designated working hours without facing disciplinary action.
• Right to refuse after-hours calls, messages and emails without repercussions.
• Setting up an Employees’ Welfare Authority to implement and monitor the right to disconnect.
• A national baseline study to assess digital communication burdens on employees outside work hours.

Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhikshan Bill

Polity & Governance

Context

• The Union Cabinet has approved the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhikshan Bill.

Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhikshan Bill

• The bill proposes a unified regulator for higher education, replacing existing statutory bodies such as the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).
• UGC oversees non-technical higher education, the AICTE oversees technical education and the NCTE is the regulatory body for teachers’ education.
• It follows recommendations in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 for a single regulatory authority to streamline governance and oversight in India’s higher education sector.