News

What is the role of Central/State Governments? Develop educational programmes for the public especially disadvantaged communities on RTI. Encourage Public Authorities to participate in the development and organization of such programmes. Promote timely dissemination of accurate information to the public. Train officers and develop training materials. Compile and disseminate a User Guide for the...

How is Central Information Commission constituted? Central Information Commission to be constituted by the Central Government through a Gazette Notification. Commission includes 1 Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and not more than 10 Information Commissioners (IC) who will be appointed by the President of India. Oath of Office will be administered by the President of India according to the...

What is the Application Procedure for requesting information? Apply in writing or through electronic means in English or Hindi or in the official language of the area, to the PIO, specifying the particulars of the information sought for. Reason for seeking information are not required to be given; Pay fees as may be prescribed (if not belonging to the below poverty line category). What is the time...

What is not open to disclosure? The following is exempt from disclosure [S.8)] information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law...

What are the obligations of public authority? It shall publish within one hundred and twenty days of the enactment:- the particulars of its organization, functions and duties; the powers and duties of its officers and employees; the procedure followed in its decision making process, including channels of supervision and accountability; the norms set by it for the discharge of its functions; the...

When does it come into force? It comes into force on the 12th October, 2005 (120th day of its enactment on 15th June, 2005). Some provisions have come into force with immediate effect viz. obligations of public authorities [S.4(1)], designation of Public Information Officers and Assistant Public Information Officers[S.5(1) and 5(2)], constitution of Central Information Commission (S.12 and 13)...

Yahoo has formally made its entry into the online content space in India. The Internet giant has launched its cricket channel on Yahoo India with cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar so far being the sole columnist providing original content. In a country where cricket is nothing short of a religion, many online experts are seeing it as a late entry. More so, since Yahoo already has a cricket...

The Times of India, by any means, is not the largest circulated daily in the country. Yet, if one sifts through all media criticism in various media, one would see that most of it is de facto criticism of this newspaper alone. Not without reason, though. And we will go into these reasons in good time. It was not surprising that the newspaper's brazen declaration that it would be hawking its...

Veteran British broadcaster Sir David Frost is to join Arabic-language TV station Aljazeera, the network has confirmed. Sir David is to appear on Aljazeera International, the pan-Arab news network's new English-language channel, due to be launched next spring. The Qatar-based channel said Sir David, who broadcast his final Breakfast with Frost programme for the BBC in May, would be among the "key...

AS BLOGS become big business, Internet giants have begun trying to profit from new forms of journalism, including war coverage. The results are not encouraging. Yahoo's latest experiment reveals that it considers war news just another form of entertainment. This from an online giant that has already shown it is cavalier about press freedom and a friend of oppression. Look back to 2004, when...