-The Hindustan Times The country's intelligence agencies are out to scuttle a law that's being drafted to protect your privacy. The Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing have told the government to water down the proposed law that makes it a crime to leak sensitive Personal Information collected by government departments and the private sector. The agencies conveyed their views to national security adviser Shivshankar Menon at a recent meeting at...
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Seven Years of RTI: From Strength to Strength
India's landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It's anybody's guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that...
More »Ask the right questions -Ruchi Gupta
-The Indian Express Those who want parties under RTI have not specified whether this advances transparency or electoral reform. It is time for a more nuanced debate. The tussle around the proposed RTI amendments to nullify the CIC order bringing the six national parties under the RTI Act is notable for many reasons: first, the amendments were sent to the standing committee for deliberation despite near political unanimity. This is significant, since...
More »EC lays down guidelines to regulate campaigning on social media -Bharti Jain
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Political parties and candidates will now have to account for every penny spent on the use of social media for their poll campaigns. The Election Commission on Friday issued detailed guidelines to regulate internet campaigns on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc, asking candidates to declare their social media accounts and all political parties to pre-certify advertisements before they are posted on social media websites. The instructions also require...
More »40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji
-The Times of India MUMBAI: On the eighth anniversary of India's landmark transparency legislation today, data mined on the Right to Information (RTI) Act shows it is, indeed, India's sunshine law, with an estimated 40 lakh people using the Act during 2011-12, the latest year for which all-India data is available. The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), an independent organisation closely associated with the RTI legislation, data-mined annual reports filed by the...
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