Thin, shy and already balding, his glasses threatening to fall off his nose at every movement, Mohammed Mobashshir Sarwar doesn’t quite look the teen rebel. Yet, at 17, he already has 100 Right to Information (RTI) applications under his belt, all directed at his state-run school, whose management he is now battling in high court for expelling him. Man of a few words he may be, but Sarwar has had no problem...

Five days after writing to Sena working president Uddhav Thackeray, RTI activists denounced the private member bill introduced by a Sena MP to make amendments to the RTI Act. They also pledged to initiate a mass campaign against any amendment that would dilute the RTI Act at a public meeting. On Monday, activists wrote to Sena president and e-mailed his son Aditya, asking both to ensure that their party MP, Bhausaheb Wakchaure,...

This is a saga of how the Hindu outfit saw the promise in Anna and pursued him for its gains. How often do we meet strangers on a flight and realise that it could possibly be the beginning of a lasting friendship? This is how yoga teacher Ramdev and super cop Kiran Bedi met in mid 2010 when both of them were on the same flight and Ramdev spotted her. Although fate...

-The Times of India   A Nagpurian who had appeared in a state government engineering exam conducted by the Maharashtra Public Service Commission(MPSC) has been able to secure a photocopy of answer sheets of his theory papers under the RTI. This is a landmark judgment and henceforth other candidates too will be able to check whether they have been evaluated properly. Nilesh Madankar had appeared for the Maharashtra Engineering Service (MES) examination early this...

-The Deccan Herald   In an attempt to usher transparency regarding functioning of the banking sector, the Central Information Commission on Friday directed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to reveal the details of Annual Financial Inspection (AFI) reports of banks and also the fines imposed on them based for violating rules. Direction to make public the annual inspection reports of banks was given by Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi while he overruled the...