-Hindustan Times Election Commission of India (ECI) is outgunned when it comes to confronting those who circumvent existing campaign finance rules and lacks power to sanction candidates. It is a truism to note that political finance sits at the heart of corruption in modern India. While politicians publicly lament the status quo, they privately profit from the current system. Therefore, the fact that the Narendra Modi government has made reforming political finance...

-The Hindu The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of...

-The Indian Express The procurement process also faced several allegations of corruption and favouritism. However, even months after the concerns were raised, the government is yet to take any action on them, reveals the RTI. Pune: Across party lines, political leaders had raised questions about the process to procure over 3 lakh tonnes of tur by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd, or NAFED, last year, revealed response to...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved guidelines for granting special remission to certain categories of prisoners, including women, transgenders and the differently abled, as part of commemorating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. According to the decision, women and transgender convicts who are at least 55 years old and have completed half their sentences will be granted the remission and set...

-The Hindu Any move to amend the RTI Act must involve public consultation The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)government has struck another blow against transparency and accountability. Its already negative track record — that has been marked by an unwillingness to operationalise the Lok Pal, the Whistleblowers Act and the Grievance Redress law — has taken another step backwards if one is to go by a single line in item 14 in the...