The Right to Information Act, enacted in 2005, has been considered as the most effective tool in the hands of citizens to fight for transparency and accountability. However, there exists huge gender gap in awareness and usage of RTI Act, finds the report entitled People's Monitoring of the RTI Regime in India 2011-13, released in October 2014 (please see the link below). Prepared by RTI Assessment and Advocacy Group (RaaG) and...

-The Indian Express Mumbai: In a move that has Right To Information activists up in arms, the administration of Governor-ruled Maharashtra has issued a directive to all departments and offices, asking them not to provide any information under the RTI Act if it "does not constitute any public interest". While government officials say the objective of the directive is to merely restrict those misusing RTI, activists describe it as a move to...

-Deccan Chronicle Nizamabad: To prevent high-level irregularities in the Public Distribution System (PDS), the Nizamabad district administration has decided to introduce bio-metric system for supplying essentials to ration card holders. On a pilot basis, around 100 fair price (FP) shops will be adopted and the bio-metric system will be introduced to distribute essentials to the beneficiaries. As per the new system, any one of the family member of ration cardholder...

-The Hindu Rapid urbanisation, globalisation, consumerism, poor solid waste and water management and increasing population movement have created new habitats for mosquito breeding Dengue fever is rearing its ugly head again in India with new cases of infections and even deaths being reported from different States. The world's fastest growing vector-borne disease, dengue sees an estimated 50-100 million cases being reported annually in over 100 endemic countries. Ever since its detection in...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Within days of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's return from the US, the US Trade Representative (USTR) has launched a fresh offensive against India's intellectual property rights (IPR) regime, a move that may lead to the government going slow on a bilateral dialogue with Washington. On Tuesday, USTR will launch what it calls an "out-of-cycle review" (OCR) of India's IPR regime, following a report released earlier this...