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Union cabinet has cleared recently cleared "DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2018", this will make law enforcement agencies to collect DNA samples, create "DNA profiles" and special data banks for forensic-criminal investigations.
DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2018
Earlier known as DNA "profiling" Bill, the draft was prepared by Department of Biotechnology. The aim of the bill was to set in place an institutional mechanism to collect and deploy DNA technologies to identify persons based on samples collected from crime scenes or for identifying missing persons.
A "DNA Profiling Board" is to be created under the bill, the board will be final authority on creation of State-level DNA data-banks, approve the methods of collection and analysis of DNA-technologies.
Several clauses of the original bill were deleted to make it stronger and immune to data abuse. The aim of the bill is not to create database of DNA profiles, databases can only store information related to criminal investigations and the DNA details of suspects will be deleted.
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