-The United Nations   An independent United Nations expert on freedom of expression today warned that governments are increasingly restricting the flow of information on the Internet due to its potential to mobilize people to challenge the status quo. Frank La Rue, a Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva today: “Governments are using increasingly sophisticated technologies to block content, and to monitor and identify...

-PTI   Nearly six years after the Right to Information Act (RTI) was enacted, the Government has constituted a Special Task Force to ensure effective implementation of the Act and to bring in more transparency and accountability in governance. The task force is mandated to seek ways for effective implementation of Section 4 of the RTI Act for proactive disclosures by the public authorities and to explore the possibility of prescribing simple...

What does it take to get the government to fight corruption? One answer could be: a medical facility with an air-conditioned Intensive Care Unit, a team of 60 doctors, a media centre, 1,300 toilets, seven large screens to pipe live action, television sets, and a storage facility of 100,000 litres of water. This is some of the infrastructure behind Baba Ramdev’s fast that starts on 4 June at New Delhi’s Ramlila grounds. Ramdev...

-The Hindustan Times   Unidentified men assaulted a Right to Information (RTI) activist from Bharatnagar, Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) on Friday. The police said he suffered injuries to his head, knee and hands. Senior inspector UK Rathod, from Kherwadi police station said: “Ismail Patwari approached us on Sunday after he was attacked by three men with iron rods. Patwari, a resident of Bharat Nagar, was outside a photocopy store near Chetna College when...

The current perception that cash transfers can replace public provision of basic goods and services and become a catch-all solution for poverty reduction is false. Where cash transfers have helped to reduce poverty, they have added to public provision, not replaced it. For crucial items like food, direct provision protects poor consumers from rising prices and is part of a broader strategy to ensure domestic supply. Problems like targeting errors...