-The Hindustan Times The Haryana government has notified a policy to provide security to whistleblowers and Right to Information (RTI) activists. An official spokesman said on Tuesday that a whistleblower could be a person who made a complaint or exposed any government office or undertaking or company about an attempt to commit or commission of an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. He said an RTI activist was a person...

-Live Mint The first in a two-part series examining the opaque world of clinical trials in India  A hospital in Indore has been able to get away with unethical medical trials in which 32 people have died over five years, according to the state government. This despite several investigations, a state government ban and Supreme Court strictures—a classic example of the lawless nature of the clinical trial business in India.   Lata Mehra, who...

-Forbes India Why the recent Supreme Court ruling threatens to kill citizens’ Right to Information The Supreme Court has placed the Central Information Commission (CIC), the apex body to deal with appeals regarding RTI, as well as the Information Commissions across the states in a fine pickle. On September 13, a division bench of the Supreme Court, chaired by Justice AK Patnaik and Justice Swatanter Kumar, passed an order which would fundamentally change...

-The Hindu Right to Information (RTI) activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal says there is something suspicious about why the Cabinet Secretariat is not divulging the full biodata of former Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) Polayil Joseph Thomas, and other details about him that were placed before the high power committee headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Mr. Agrawal, who had sought these details and filed an appeal against the order of the Chief Public...

-The Hindu Hearings suspended in Maharashtra, Kerala, Rajasthan A quick survey of the fallout of the Supreme Court order directing that State Information Commissions “henceforth” work on benches of two members each — one of them a ‘judicial member’ and the other an ‘expert member’ — has shown that work in some SICs hearing appeals under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has ground to a halt. Other SICs found no barrier to...