-The Economic Times Drug companies paid as little as 50,000 as compensation to families of volunteers who died during clinical trials for new medicines last year, leading to sharp criticism about the paltry sums being handed out and growing clamour among health groups for more stringent guidelines on new drug trials.  According to government data accessed by a healthcare activist through an rti query, Germany's Fresenius Kabi paid 50,000 each to the...

-Deccan Herald The Jammu and Kashmir State Information Commission (SIC) has directed the police to provide details of all the encounters that took place in the state in the last 21 years sought by an applicant under the Right to Information (rti) Act within a period of two months. “The Commission is of the view that the reputation of the police, armed and paramilitary forces will get enhanced if this information is...

-The Hindu The participants also called for deletion of Sections 9 to 16 of the Bill dealing with the forming of a "Complaints Scrutiny Panel" besides the Oversight Committee With the Lokpal Bill stuck in limbo, a civil society-led national consultation on judicial accountability was held here on Tuesday in which several shortcomings in the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2012, as passed by the Lok Sabha were discussed. The consultation was organised...

-The Times of India While it is no secret that former President Pratibha Patil set new records with her incessant travel, rti records have revealed another dubious first. Patil travelled twice as many times as the PM and vice-president over the last three years spending over Rs 140 crore in air travel expenses alone. According to data given by Air Force in response to an rti filed by activist Subhash Agrawal, IAF's...

-PTI The government has put a word limit of 500 words for filing an application under the Right to Information (rti) Act. Besides this, a new format has been devised for filing an appeal to the Central Information Commission under the transparency law. The government has also made it mandatory for an appellant or his authorised representative to appear before the CIC either in person or through video-conferencing, according to new rules notified...