“Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders.” This quote by US President Ronald Reagan summarises the significance attributed to facts, figures and data and the need to make them freely available across servers and bandwidths. In this age of internet and mobile networks, the amount of information available to us is far more than...

-The Hindu   The National Campaign for People's Right to Information has expressed its concern at the reported official move to exclude agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) from the Right to Information Act. In a statement signed by Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey, Prashant Bhushan, Venkatesh Nayak and Anjali Bharadwaj, among others, the NCPRI described the proposed exclusion...

-The Hindustan   If you wish to investigate the proceedings of any redevelopment project but find it difficult due to the unavailability of City Survey number (CS no.), you can find the information with the mere click of a mouse. A few Right To Information (RTI) activists have acquired detailed reports of 1,365 redevelopment projects from the Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority (Mhada) and the civic building proposal department. The information is...

-The Times of India   RTI activists will get a report card of the UP State Information Commission (UPSIC ) ready. The commission entered its sixth year of functioning on March 22, 2011. The orders passed by the commission so far are not very satisfactory , is the public opinion. "Occasionally there might have been good orders," said one of the activists. The activists working in the state have appealed to all...

The Right to Information Act (RTI Act), barring certain exceptions, can be used to get information about decisions taken by public authorities, details of public expenditure, status of projects and many other administrative issues. RTI is also used as an effective tool to prevent corruption, and hence, it is essential that citizens use this Act regularly to keep a check on public authorities. In order to get accurate responses, citizens are...