The Right to Information Act and it’s Impact on India’s Politics and Administration

This paper attempts to describe the genesis and evolution of the RTI regime in India, within the global and regional context. It describes the events leading up to the coalescing of the RTI movement in India. It goes on to discourses good governance discourses, paradigm shift, good governance, need of RTI, advocacy of civil society and the RTI movement, identifies its allies and opponents, and discusses the strategies adopted, and the resultant successes and failures. Based on all this, it attempts to draw out lessons that might be learnt from the Indian RTI movement. The paper ends with a conclusion of the findings of two nation-wide studies recently conducted to assess the implementation of the RTI Act in India and suggests an agenda for action, aimed at strengthening and deepening India’s RTI regime.