-The Indian Express Several commissions were either not functioning or functioning at reduced capacity as posts of Commissioners, including those of Chief Information Commissioners, were vacant during the period under review. A recent study to assess the performance of Information Commissions (ICs) by non-government organisations Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS) and Centre for Equity Studies (CES) has found several shortcomings in their functioning, which impact the effectiveness of the Right to Information...

-Newsclick.in An assessment conducted by the Satark Nagrik Sangathan and the Centre for Equity Studies has flagged the problems of huge pendency of appeals and complaints as well as long waiting periods for disposal. The information commissions (ICs) set up under the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005 are critical to citizens exercising the hard-won Right to Information, which can hold the government and public offices accountable. But a new report on...

-TheWire.in When conscientious and well-meaning citizens are attacked for "acting rightly", is the government "acting rightly" by not doing enough to safeguard them? Yet another Right to Information (RTI) activist in Gujarat has paid with his life for demanding transparency. On March 9, Nanjibhai Sondarva (35), a resident of Manekvada village in Kotda Sangani taluka of Rajkot district, was allegedly clubbed to death by six people. The deceased’s father has claimed that...

-TheWire.in Environmentalist and water management expert Ravi Chopra says river inter-linking will sow the seeds for future conflicts between states. There is nothing new about the proposed river-interlinking project being pushed by the government, and this ‘unnecessary excess’ of a project will create more problems than it promises to solve, says environmentalist and water management expert, Dr Ravi Chopra, the director of People’s Science Institute, Dehradun and a managing trustee of the...

-Livemint.com Universal basic income (UBI) cannot come at the cost of existing welfare schemes and exclusive reliance on Aadhaar-linked cash transfers can prove to be short-sighted, says Carnegie India report New Delhi: A universal basic income (UBI) for Indian citizens cannot come at the cost of withdrawing existing welfare schemes and an exclusive reliance on Aadhaar-linked welfare payments for cash transfers can prove to be short-sighted, says new research. The central design features...