On 3rd February, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology submitted its report on the DNA Technology Regulation Bill in the Rajya Sabha. If passed, the bill will set up a national DNA database in the country for the first time. The Bill aims to identify and store the DNA of offenders, suspects, undertrials, missing persons and unknown deceased persons.

Public relations agency Ogilvy India and government affairs consultancy firm Gordon Thomson Honeywell have been supporting the Bill with their campaign #DNAfightsRape. Although the Bill goes much beyond sexual assaulters alone, the #DNAfightsRape campaign focuses on how it could benefit sexual assault victims in particular. 

In this episode, we explore how DNA is used in criminal investigations and how the science of DNA is addressed by the Bill. Our reporter Suryatapa Mukherjee speaks to Shreya Rastogi, founder of Project 39A at National Law University, and Rohin Garg, Associate Policy Counsel at Internet Freedom Foundation. You will also hear speakers from Ogilvy’s webinar, Dr GK Goswami, the Inspector General of Police in Uttar Pradesh, and Vanessa Lynch, a senior government affairs consultant at Gordon Thomas Honeywell and the founder of The DNA Project and The DNA Project Africa.

Standing Committee Report on DNA Bill 

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