-The Hindu Instead of holding a public debate on making the Act more effective, the government is seeking to dilute its provisions The Right to Information (RTI) Act, operationalised in October 2005, was seen as a powerful tool for citizen empowerment. It showed an early promise by exposing wrongdoings at high places, such as in the organisation of the Commonwealth Games, and the allocation of 2G spectrum and coal blocks. However, it...

-Hindustan Times Acharyulu also expressed his astonishment over the Supreme Court asking the Centre to submit details of the decision-making process of the Rafale deal. He said, “I am surprised that now the Supreme Court has asked the government for the information regarding the decision-making process of the Rafale deal. Technical details of the deal are not important. Besides, why should the SC even ask for this information in the first...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: All is not right with the Right to Information (RTI) Act in India. A recent rating of 123 countries with functional Right to Information laws saw the country slip to number six on the list. While it slipped by only a notch from last year, it is several rungs down the list from 2011, when the global RTI rating started. India was at number 2...

-The Hindu Bhuira's women are coping with the higher workload by creating vastly more flexible family and community structures. And they are simultaneously pushing towards modernity much faster than their neighbours. Everyone in the village sneaks a glance when Upasana Kumari drives her White Maruti 800 to work. “Driving a car is intoxicating,” says Kumari. A winding, muddy, single lane road that starts from the edge of the hillock where Kumari’s house...

-Press release by Right to Food Campaign dated 28th September, 2018 17 lakh elderly, widows and differently-abled persons in Jharkhand who qualify for social security pensions, do not receive their entitlement. One important reason is that pension coverage in Jharkhand is not universal. Even those who do receive pensions face chronic selection errors and administrative glitches. In 2016-17, 3 lakh pensioners were deleted as “fake”, though many genuine persons, whose pension...