A law empowering Indians to seek information from government to promote accountability and transparency has brought change to urban India, but has largely left out the country's rural poor, social activists say. The Right to Information (RTI) Act - similar to the Freedom of Information Act in the United States - was enacted almost five years ago and is aimed at providing a practical way for all citizens to access...

A full bench of the Central Information Commission headed by Chief Central Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah has recently held that while all proceedings before the Parliamentary Committees (PC) are no doubt held secret, it cannot be stretched to mean that every single item of information, held anywhere, that may, now or in future, become part of the proceedings before the PC, or may be required to be produced before the...

A clutch of activists questioned the manner in which government went about choosing information commissioners,or the authorities tasked with facilitating public inquiry under the Right To Information (RTI) Act. In a press conference, prominent RTI activists, including Magsaysay awardee Arvind Kejriwal, alleged that Department of Personnel and Training hadn’t prescribed rules to select information commissioners. This, they added, encouraged an arbitary selection of individuals to these posts. India’s RTI Act of...

Chanchala Devi always wanted a house. Not a mud-and-stick hut, like her current home in this desolate village in the mineral-rich, corruption-corroded state of Jharkhand, but a proper brick-and-mortar house. When she heard that a government program for the poor would give her about $700 to build that house, she applied immediately. As an impoverished day labourer from a downtrodden caste, she was an ideal candidate for the grant. Yet she...

The Orissa government today confirmed that at least 45 companies had been allowed to draw water from rivers, seeking to balance the demand for industry and that of farmers who fear their source of irrigation might dry up. The state government has so far signed memoranda of understanding with 86 companies, of which 45 have been given the right to draw water. Many of the companies deal in power generation, for...