Legal and Policies
India’s Right to Disconnect Bill: Switching off for sanity
NEW DELHI: Indian workers could soon enjoy something revolutionary: the legal right to ignore their boss after clocking off. The Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025, a private member’s bill introduced in the Lok Sabha by NCP MP Supriya Sule during the Winter Session, proposes freeing employees from the digital leash that keeps them tethered to office communications beyond working hours.
The legislation tackles what many have experienced firsthand: the relentless ping of work emails at dinner time, late-night calls about tomorrow’s meeting, and the Sunday morning message asking for “just one quick thing.” Sule’s bill proposes the creation of an Employees’ Welfare Authority, which would ensure that workers face no repercussions for switching their phones to silent after deciding their workday has ended.
Companies with more than 10 employees would be required to negotiate clear after-hours communication norms with unions or employee representatives. If work beyond fixed hours becomes unavoidable, employers must compensate employees at normal wage rates. Firms that fail to comply with the rules could face a proposed penalty amounting to 1% of their total employee remuneration.
A complementary proposal came from MP Shashi Tharoor, who introduced an amendment bill seeking stronger safeguards against overwork. In Parliament, Tharoor referenced the death of Anna Sebastian Perayil, a 26-year-old EY professional whose case reignited public debate on exploitative working hours, arguing that unchecked overwork undermines both physical and mental health.
The Bill goes beyond boundary-setting. It calls for access to counselling services and the establishment of digital detox centres to address rising workplace afflictions such as “telepressure,” the compulsion to respond instantly, and “info-obesity,” a state of constant message monitoring. Comparable protections already exist in France (law introduced in 2016), Portugal (implemented January 2022), and Australia (right-to-disconnect amendments passed in 2024 with staged rollout).
However, as a private member’s bill, its path ahead is steep. Parliament rarely passes such bills; in fact, none have become law since 1970. Most are withdrawn after the government responds or stall without debate. Still, the introduction of Sule’s bill has sparked necessary conversations about workplace well-being in an increasingly hyper-connected economy.
For now, the proposal remains just that, a proposal. But its very presence on the floor of Parliament signals a growing recognition of a simple truth: genuine rest requires genuine disconnection. Whether lawmakers choose to act on that truth remains to be seen.
Legal and Policies
‘The India deal is on…’: India tariffs cut to 10% from 18% after Trump’s SC defeat
In response, Trump rolls out blanket 10 per cent tariff, “effective almost immediately”
WASHINGTON: The White House said on Friday that US trading partners, including India, will face a flat 10 per cent tariff after the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose sweeping import duties. Countries that reached tariff agreements with Washington, both before and after Trump’s original orders, will now be subject to the same 10 per cent levy, even if higher rates had previously been agreed.
The ruling invalidated Trump’s reliance on a 1977 law to levy sudden, country-specific tariffs, dealing a sharp blow to one of his signature economic policies. Within hours, the administration responded by certifying a new, across-the-board 10 per cent duty on imports into the United States.
In response, Trump announced an additional blanket 10 per cent tariff on all imports into the United States, signing a new order and saying on social media that it was “effective almost immediately”, after a year in which his administration had imposed varying duties to reward allies and punish rivals.
According to a White House factsheet, the new levy will take effect on 24 February and remain in force for 150 days. Exemptions will continue for sectors under separate investigations, including pharmaceuticals, and for goods entering the US under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
A White House official told AFP that the administration would seek ways to “implement more appropriate or pre-negotiated tariff rates” at a later stage, signalling that country-specific arrangements could return through alternative legal routes.
The move directly affects India, which earlier this month announced a framework for an interim trade agreement with the United States. That arrangement followed Trump’s decision to lift 25 per cent punitive tariffs linked to India’s purchases of Russian oil and cut reciprocal duties from 25 per cent to 18 per cent. Under the new regime, Indian exports to the US will instead face the flat 10 per cent rate.
Trump insisted the Supreme Court verdict would not disrupt the India-US trade deal. “Nothing changes,” he said, adding that India would continue to pay tariffs while the United States would not.
“They’ll be paying tariffs, and we will not be paying tariffs. So the deal with India is they pay tariffs… It’s a fair deal now,” Trump said, describing the shift as a “flip” from past arrangements. “The India deal is on… all the deals are on—we’re just going to do it in a different way.”
Earlier on Friday, the Supreme Court ruled six to three that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorise a president to impose tariffs. Chief justice John Roberts said the law contained “no reference to tariffs or duties” and did not grant such “extraordinary power”.
Trump reacted angrily, accusing the court, without evidence, of foreign influence and claiming the ruling left him “more powerful”. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent later said the administration’s alternative approach would leave tariff revenues “virtually unchanged” in 2026.
The decision does not affect sector-specific duties on steel, aluminium and other goods, nor ongoing investigations that could lead to further levies. Still, it marks Trump’s most significant Supreme Court defeat since returning to the White House.
Markets reacted calmly, with Wall Street shares edging higher. Business groups welcomed the ruling, while uncertainty remains over whether companies will receive refunds for tariffs already paid. Analysts estimate potential refunds could reach $175 billion, though legal clarity is lacking.
