-PTI   Government has spent nearly Rs 42 crore on foreign visits by Union Ministers during the last one year. The information provided in an RTI reply shows that while Cabinet Ministers spent Rs 37.16 crore on their foreign visits, their junior colleagues, Ministers of State, spent about Rs 4.76 crore on these visits bringing the total travel expenditure to Rs 41.82 crore for the year 2010-11. The Cabinet Secretariat has given these...

If you are seeking information about a creaking flyover or inflated electricity tariffs under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, what are the chances that your queries will be answered? That may well depend on whether the service or utility is provided by a public body or a public-private partnership (PPP). While the central information commission treats PPPs as public bodies that should come under the RTI; many have wriggled...

-Live Mint   In almost all instances, what is feared is the disclosure of “damaging” information—information that shows official lapses. Looked from another vantage, if officials have not done any wrong, they should have no fear at the release of such facts Six years after it was passed, the Right to Information (RTI) Act evokes contrasting feelings. Among politicians and in officialdom, suspicion and hostility are dominant moods. Among citizens, hope and despair—in...

The Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) GR Sufi Friday said that under Right to Information Act, police is answerable to public if they detain any person without any warrant. “There is a provision in the State RTI Act-2009 wherein if somebody is detained by police without a warrant, his family or relatives can file an application in local police station and the concerned Station House Officer has to furnish this information within...

The Union Government has prepared the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill, 2001 (BRAI in brief) for the regulation of the biotechnology sector in India. While the need for strong and careful regulation certainly exists keeping in view the serious threats posed to health and environment by the genetically modified (GM) crops, the BRAI can actually increase this threat by paving the way for the rapid spread of GM crops...