The Indian Express: Editorial: Saturday, 31 January 2026.
The law’s roles in exposing major scams the Vyapam scam and the Adarsh Housing Society scam, for instance is a testimony to its role as a governance enhancer. The Act has also been used to question the RBI during the banking scams
The Economic Survey has
done a commendable job in underlining the country’s resilience in an
increasingly uncertain world. It has highlighted the deficits that could stall
the growth momentum and rightly pointed out that increasing innovation, scaling
up the country’s manufacturing ecosystem, and enhancing export competitiveness
will require the government to become an enabler not a heavy-handed controller.
The Survey, however, is misplaced in interpreting civic scrutiny of governance
as antithetical to the entrepreneurial spirit. It calls for a re-examination of
the Right to Information Act, particularly the provisions related to the
disclosure of deliberations that inform policymaking. The observation that such
disclosures “unduly constrain governance” is a narrow reading of administrative
efficiency. Public access to documents illuminates the evolution of a policy
and provides a context for why certain ideas were accepted or rejected. They
are a precious tool for citizens to force the bureaucracy to share information
concerning public policy and the delivery of services and goods. A transparent
bureaucracy is, in turn, fundamental to a stable, predictable, and fair
economic environment.
By reducing information asymmetry between citizens and state, the RTI has redefined the relationship between the two. The argumentative ethos fostered by the disclosure provisions has been critical to keeping bureaucrats on their toes. They are not “tools for ideal disclosure”, as the Survey notes. The law’s roles in exposing major scams the Vyapam scam and the Adarsh Housing Society scam, for instance is a testimony to its role as a governance enhancer. The Act has also been used to question the RBI during the banking scams. The financial probity catalysed the Supreme Court’s verdicts in the Girish Mittal (2021) and Jayantilal Mistry (2016) cases, wherein the SC held the Central Bank must disclose names of willful loan defaulters and details of Non-Performing Assets of public sector banks. At the same time, however, the Act’s enabling provisions have been substantially attenuated in recent years. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, which came into force last year, exempts from disclosure “information which relates to personal information.. which has no relationship to any public activity or interest”. The government has reportedly also tried to evade public scrutiny by claiming it does not have data on migrant workers who died during Covid , paper leaks in competitive exams and on farmers’ suicides.
The Economic Survey does acknowledge that the RTI Act is a “powerful tool for reform”. The government would do well to go by the Survey’s overall governance-centred ethos, and not heed the suggestion to re-examine RTI.
The law’s roles in exposing major scams the Vyapam scam and the Adarsh Housing Society scam, for instance is a testimony to its role as a governance enhancer. The Act has also been used to question the RBI during the banking scams
By reducing information asymmetry between citizens and state, the RTI has redefined the relationship between the two. The argumentative ethos fostered by the disclosure provisions has been critical to keeping bureaucrats on their toes. They are not “tools for ideal disclosure”, as the Survey notes. The law’s roles in exposing major scams the Vyapam scam and the Adarsh Housing Society scam, for instance is a testimony to its role as a governance enhancer. The Act has also been used to question the RBI during the banking scams. The financial probity catalysed the Supreme Court’s verdicts in the Girish Mittal (2021) and Jayantilal Mistry (2016) cases, wherein the SC held the Central Bank must disclose names of willful loan defaulters and details of Non-Performing Assets of public sector banks. At the same time, however, the Act’s enabling provisions have been substantially attenuated in recent years. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, which came into force last year, exempts from disclosure “information which relates to personal information.. which has no relationship to any public activity or interest”. The government has reportedly also tried to evade public scrutiny by claiming it does not have data on migrant workers who died during Covid , paper leaks in competitive exams and on farmers’ suicides.
The Economic Survey does acknowledge that the RTI Act is a “powerful tool for reform”. The government would do well to go by the Survey’s overall governance-centred ethos, and not heed the suggestion to re-examine RTI.
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