Six years after the Right to Information Act was passed by Parliament, the government has made no progress in computerisation of its records, a promise it made in the law itself. Amid growing complaints from departments that most of their time is spent in handling RTIs, the Central Information Commission has now reminded the government to do a status check of the implementation of the RTI Act and computerise all...

-CNN-IBN   There is revolt in the Delhi University campus as student and teacher organisations will protest against the scrapping of AK Ramanujan's essay on Ramayana from the syllabus. This came after an online signature campaign last week slammed the move. "To delete it (the essay) from the syllabus is an act that is deeply disturbing, an instance of thought policing. Such a measure will only encourage sectarian groups to try and prevent...

Maharashtra has been struggling with a declining child sex ratio and is ranked among the five worst states in the country. The reasons are the same as elsewhere: preference for a male child. But in a shocking indicator of how extreme this desire is and how deep-rooted the bias against the girl child can get, scores of families across Maharashtra have simply named their daughters ‘Nakushi’ or ‘Nakusha’—meaning ‘unwanted’ in...

The Election Commission (EC) of India’s historic decision on Thursday to disqualify an elected member of the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly from contesting again for three years, for furnishing wrong information on poll expenditure, is expected to have far-reaching ramifications as it becomes the guiding principle for other high-profile cases pending before it. Umlesh Yadav of the Rashtriya Parivartan Dal has been barred from completing the remaining four months of her...

-The Times of India   Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National Investigation Agency (NIA) and newly-formed NATGRID have joined the exclusive list of organizations that are exempted from sharing information under the RTI Act except for the matters pertaining to allegations of corruption and human rights violations. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had approved in June that these three organizations would be spared from sharing information under the second schedule of the RTI Act....