-Down to Earth The National Democratic Alliance government's move is an assault on the independence of information commissioners, writes former Central Information Commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu Alas! I thought the Narendra Modi government is strong enough after its re-election. But now it is scared of the Right to Information (RTI) and the Chief Information Commission (CIC), as if they are monsters who can harm the power of the powerful rulers. The Information Commissioner...

-ThePrint.in Most IAS, IRS, IFS officers ThePrint spoke to welcomed Modi govt’s move to forcibly retire 'corrupt' officers and said it would make bureaucracy productive. New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government’s move to get rid of corrupt and dubious officers from the bureaucracy has, surprisingly, gone down well with Civil Servants, most of who do not see it as a threat to their career. Several IAS, IRS and IFS officers ThePrint spoke to...

-ThePrint.in Modi govt policy to induct domain experts into the civil service does not provide for quotas, a decision labelled unfair by Dalit IAS, IRS officers. New Delhi: The Modi government’s decision to not extend reservation to domain experts recruited in the civil service through lateral entry has irked several Dalit IAS officers and other Civil Servants — serving and retired — who argue that the decision is legally untenable. This is just...

-Frontline.in An RTI-based public interest petition in the Bombay High Court points out that 20 lakh EVMs that the manufacturers affirm to have delivered are “missing” from the possession of the Election Commission. Issues relating to the “vulnerability” and “unreliability” of electronic voting machines (EVMs) have come up regularly in the context of the 2019 general election. Complaints filed by opposition parties on specific instances of malfunctioning of EVMs as well as...

-The Economic Times The group said the threat posed by digital platforms to the integrity of the upcoming elections has assumed “alarming proportions”. A group of rights organisations and citizens — including Internet Freedom Foundation, Common Cause and former chief election commissioners N Gopalaswami and SY Quraishi — have “made an urgent appeal” to the Election Commission to rein in digital platforms to ensure integrity of the general elections. The group, which also...