Transparency, Accountability and e-Governance

1. Governance, good governance and accountability

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• Government vs governance. Government is the set of institutions that rule. Class 7, The State, the Government, and You says governments change but the state remains. Governance is the process of using authority, and markets and civil society also take part in it. The World Bank's Governance and Development (1992) defined it as the way power is used to manage a country's economic and social resources for development.
• Good governance means governance that is participatory, transparent, accountable, responsive, efficient and equitable, and that follows the rule of law. UNESCAP lists eight such features. The 2nd ARC linked it to ethics and citizen-centric administration.
• Indian roots. Kautilya's rajadharma is the king's duty to govern well. Without order comes matsya nyaya, where big fish swallow the small (Class 7).
• Minimum government, maximum governance has been a slogan since 2014. It means a smaller direct role for government and fewer procedures, with better delivery through technology, simpler rules and decentralisation.
• Good Governance Day is 25 December, Vajpayee's birth anniversary, observed since 2014.
• Transparency means open access to information on policies, actions and public spending, so citizens can check how a decision was made (Class 7).
• Accountability means those in power must answer for what they do. It needs two parts: answerability (explaining) and enforceability (facing consequences).
• Vertical accountability: rulers answer to citizens through elections, the media ("fourth pillar", Class 9, Democracy) and civil society.
• Horizontal accountability: other state bodies check the executive. These include Parliament (Question Hour), courts, the CAG, the CIC, the Lokpal and the CVC.

• Social accountability comes in Section 6.

• Decentralisation brings "more accountability" because leaders are closer to the people (Class 7). Misinformation distorts accountability (Class 9).

2. From official secrecy to the right to know

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• Official Secrets Act 1923 is a colonial law. s.3 punishes spying and s.5 punishes passing on official information wrongly. Ministers' oath of secrecy and the conduct rules added to this culture of secrecy.
• The 2nd ARC 1st Report (2006) asked for the OSA to be repealed. It has not been repealed.

• The RTI Act overrides it through s.22. Under s.8(2), information can be disclosed in the public interest even if the OSA covers it.

• State of U.P. v. Raj Narain case (1975): people have a right to know every public act of public officials. This right flows from Art. 19(1)(a), the freedom of speech.

• S.P. Gupta v. UoI (1981): open government is the new democratic culture. Disclosure is the rule and secrecy is the exception.
• Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) was founded on 1 May 1990 at Devdungri, Rajasthan, by Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey and Shankar Singh. Its fight for minimum wages turned into a demand to see muster rolls and bills.
• Jan sunwai (from 1994) is a village public hearing. Official records of works and wages are read aloud, and residents check them. This exposed ghost workers and fake bills, under the slogan "hamara paisa, hamara hisaab" (our money, our accounts). The Beawar dharna and the NCPRI followed in 1996.
• Path to the law:
• State RTI laws came first: Tamil Nadu and Goa (1997), Rajasthan and Karnataka (2000), Delhi (2001), Maharashtra (2002-03).
• The Freedom of Information Act 2002 was never brought into force.
• The NAC sent its draft in 2004. The RTI Act got assent on 15 June 2005 and came fully into force on 12 October 2005.
• Legislators added safeguards for national security and administrative efficiency (Class 9).

3. The RTI Act 2005: rights, duties and machinery

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• Right to Information Act 2005: every citizen can get information from public authorities (s.3). No reasons are needed (s.6(2)). "Information" (s.2(f)) includes records, e-mails, opinions, samples and electronic data.
• Public authority (RTI) (s.2(h)): a body set up by the Constitution, a law or a notification, or one owned, controlled or substantially financed by government. NGOs financed this way are included.
• Thalappalam (2013) set the test for "substantially financed".

• DAV College Trust (2019) held that NGOs with substantial funding are covered.

• Public Information Officer (PIO) (s.5): an officer named in each authority to receive applications and supply information.

Step	Time limit
Normal reply	30 days
Matter of life or liberty	48 hours
Application through an APIO	+5 days
Third party involved	40 days
Sending the request to the right authority	5 days

• The fee is ₹10 at the Centre, and BPL applicants pay nothing. No reply in time counts as refusal, and late information must be given free.
• Proactive disclosure (s.4(1)(b)): every authority must publish 17 categories of information on its own, so fewer people need to apply. Compliance is weak.

• Jan Soochna Portal (Rajasthan, 2019) is the model. It publishes scheme, beneficiary and service data.

• RTI appeals: a first appeal goes to a senior officer within 30 days (s.19(1)). A second appeal goes to the CIC or SIC within 90 days (s.19(3)). A PIO can be fined ₹250 a day, up to ₹25,000 (s.20).

• CIC appointments: a Chief plus up to 10 Commissioners. The President appoints them on the advice of a panel: the PM, the Leader of Opposition and a Cabinet minister picked by the PM (s.12(3)).
• Right to Information (Amendment) Act 2019: the Centre now fixes the tenure, pay and conditions of central and state commissioners. This ended the fixed five-year term and their equal status with Election Commissioners. The RTI Rules 2019 set three-year terms.
• Anjali Bhardwaj (2019) ordered timely, open appointments. A new Chief Information Commissioner (Raj Kumar Goyal) and eight Commissioners took oath on 15 December 2025.
• Class 7 gives the Bagepalli case: an RTI on road-widening funds got the work finished.

4. Exemptions and the contested frontiers of RTI

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• RTI exemptions (s.8(1)) cover:
• (a) sovereignty, security, and strategic, scientific or economic interests;
• (b) matters a court has forbidden;
• (c) legislative privilege;
• (d) commercial confidence and (e) fiduciary relationships (a relationship of trust), unless public interest requires disclosure;
• (f) information from foreign governments;
• (g) danger to life;
• (h) impeding an investigation;
• (i) cabinet papers, until the decision is taken and the matter is over;
• (j) personal information.

s.9 bars disclosures that would break third-party copyright. Under s.8(3), most exemptions lapse after 20 years. This does not apply to (a), (c) and (i).

• Public interest override (s.8(2)): exempt information can still be disclosed, even against the OSA, if the public interest in disclosure is greater than the harm.
• Organisations excluded from RTI (s.24, Second Schedule): intelligence and security bodies such as the IB, R&AW, NTRO, BSF and CRPF, plus the CBI (added in 2011).
• Information about corruption and human-rights violations must still be given.

• Human-rights information needs CIC approval and is due within 45 days.

• Key cases:

• CBSE v. Aditya Bandopadhyay (2011): evaluated answer sheets are information that can be disclosed.
• Girish Deshpande (2012): service records and tax returns are personal information.

• RBI v. Jayantilal Mistry (2015): the RBI must disclose its bank-inspection findings.

• Personal information exemption. DPDP Act s.44(3) rewrote s.8(1)(j) as a blanket exemption for "personal information".

• It removed the clause's own public-interest test. Critics say the Parliament proviso is gone too, which leaves only s.8(2).
• NCPRI fears harm to social audits and to scrutiny of officials' assets. The government (PIB, 2025) says it puts Puttaswamy into law.

• It took effect with the DPDP Rules in November 2025 (verify).

• Frontiers:

• The CIC full bench (3 June 2013) held six national parties to be public authorities. The parties did not comply, and the case is pending in the Supreme Court (verify current).
• PM CARES status (verify current).
• Attacks on RTI users (100+ killed per civil-society trackers, verify).

5. Citizen's charters, Sevottam and grievance redressal

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• Citizen's charter: a public document in which an office states its services, standards, time limits and how to complain.
• The UK started it in 1991. India adopted it in 1997.

• It is not legally enforceable. The 2nd ARC 4th Report found charters had "fallen into disuse".

• Sevottam (DARPG, 2006) is a model for excellent service delivery. It has three modules: the charter, grievance redress and service delivery capability. Offices are certified to IS 15700:2005.

• Citizen-centric administration (2nd ARC 12th Report, 2009) means designing services around citizens' needs, with feedback and redress where the service is delivered. It gives a seven-step model, from defining services and standards to continuous improvement.
• Right to Services Acts make charters enforceable. Notified services have time limits, named officers, appeals and fines on officials who delay.
• Madhya Pradesh was first (Public Services Guarantee Act 2010).
• Bihar, Rajasthan, Punjab and Delhi followed in 2011, along with Karnataka's Sakala (2011-12) and Maharashtra (2015).

• The central bill of 2011 lapsed.

• Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS): DARPG's online portal (pgportal.gov.in). Citizens complain against central ministries, which must reply within set time limits. Many states run similar portals (Class 7).

• The time limit was cut from 30 to 21 days in 2024 (verify current).

• Other channels are departmental grievance offices and vigilance commissions (Class 7), and social media such as @RailwaySeva.

• Weaknesses: grievances closed without being solved, repeat complaints and no penalties.

6. Social audit and social accountability

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• Social accountability: citizens and civil society demand answers directly, not just through elections and formal institutions. Its tools are:
• jan sunwai and social audit;
• report cards and community scorecards;
• participatory budgeting: Porto Alegre (1989) and Kerala's People's Plan Campaign (1996);

• gram sabha oversight.

• Citizen report card: started in 1994 by the Public Affairs Centre, Bengaluru (Samuel Paul). It surveys users on the quality of public services and publishes the ratings, which pushes agencies to improve.

• Social audit: beneficiaries and the community check a programme's records and results, then discuss them at a public hearing. It is different from the CAG's financial audit.
• MGNREGA 2005 s.17 made gram-sabha social audit compulsory.
• The Audit of Schemes Rules 2011, made with the CAG, created independent Social Audit Units in each state. Andhra Pradesh's SSAAT (2009) is the model.

• Social audit now also covers NSAP, PMAY-G and PM POSHAN.

• New law (NCERT: MGNREGS; now: VB-G RAM G Act 2025, in force from 1 July 2026).

• 125 days of guaranteed work.
• Gram-sabha social audit at least once every six months (s.20).
• Weekly disclosure meetings in the gram panchayat.
• Biometric checks and geo-tagging (ss.23-24) (verify details).

• The debate: does digital monitoring add to community audit or replace it?

• Meghalaya Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Act 2017: India's first law making social audit of government programmes and public services compulsory.

• Problems: SAUs lack independence and funds, findings are not followed up, auditors face hostility, and the DPDP change to s.8(1)(j) may restrict beneficiary lists.

7. Whistle-blowers and the protection of disclosure

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• Why protect insiders: they know about the wrongdoing, and they also suffer the revenge.
• Satyendra Dubey (NHAI engineer) was murdered in November 2003.
• S. Manjunath (IOC officer) was murdered in 2005.

• The Law Commission's 179th Report (2001) proposed a public-interest disclosure law.

• Public Interest Disclosure and Protection of Informers (PIDPI) Resolution 2004: an executive resolution passed after Dubey's murder. It made the CVC the agency to receive corruption complaints and keep complainants' identity secret. It had no statutory force and covered only central employees.

• Whistle Blowers Protection Act 2014:
• Complaints of corruption, wilful misuse of power or crimes by public servants go to a competent authority. This is the CVC or state vigilance commissions for officials, the PM or CM for ministers, and the presiding officers for legislators.
• It protects the complainant's identity and guards against victimisation.
• Anonymous complaints are barred. False complaints can bring up to 2 years in jail and a fine.
• The WBP (Amendment) Bill 2015 would have barred disclosures in RTI s.8(1)-type categories. It passed the Lok Sabha and lapsed in 2019.

• The 2014 Act has not been brought into force (verify current).

• Wider frame:

• Private sector: Companies Act 2013 s.177 vigil mechanisms and SEBI rules.
• Abroad: UK Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998; UNCAC Art. 33 (India ratified in 2011).
• RTI users act as unprotected whistle-blowers.

8. e-Governance: concept and the National e-Governance Plan

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• e-Governance: using ICT (information and communication technology) to deliver services and run government's internal work.
• Types: G2C (government to citizen), G2B (to business), G2G (between governments) and G2E (to employees).

• Stages: web presence, then interaction, then transaction, then transformation.

• SMART government: Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive, Transparent. This is from the 2nd ARC 11th Report (Promoting e-Governance: The Smart Way Forward, 2008). It said to redesign processes first and computerise them after.

• Early milestones:
• NIC (1976).
• State pilots: Bhoomi land records (Karnataka), e-Seva (AP), Gyandoot (MP) and FRIENDS (Kerala).

• The IT Act 2000 gave legal validity to e-records and e-signatures.

• National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), approved on 18 May 2006. Its aim was to make government services available to people in their own locality.

• Core infrastructure: State Wide Area Networks, State Data Centres and Common Service Centres.

• Mission Mode Project: an e-governance project with fixed goals, timelines and service levels. There were 27 at first and 31 later.

• Central: passports, MCA21, income tax.
• State: land records, e-District.
• Integrated: e-Courts, e-Procurement.

• Passport Seva (2010, PPP) is the usual success story.

• Common Service Centres (approved 2006) are village kiosks run by local entrepreneurs (Village Level Entrepreneurs). They are managed by an SPV, CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd (2009). CSC 2.0 (2015) aims for one per gram panchayat (verify current numbers).

• e-Office (NIC) replaces paper files with electronic files and approvals, so decisions are faster and can be traced.
• Weaknesses: departments working in silos, little process redesign and the digital divide.

9. Digital India: platforms for services and participation

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• Digital India was launched on 1 July 2015. It has three vision areas:
• digital infrastructure as a utility for every citizen;
• governance and services on demand;
• digital empowerment of citizens.

It has nine pillars, including broadband highways, universal mobile access, e-Kranti, information for all and early harvest programmes.

• e-Kranti (NeGP 2.0) was approved on 25 March 2015 and has 44 Mission Mode Projects. Its principles:
• "transformation, not translation";
• integrated services;
• mandatory process redesign;
• cloud by default and mobile first;

• language localisation.

• Platforms:

Platform	Year	What it does
MyGov	26 July 2014	Citizens discuss policies, give suggestions and join tasks and contests
PRAGATI	25 March 2015	The PM reviews projects, schemes and grievances with central secretaries and chief secretaries by video
DigiLocker	2015	Cloud store for authentic documents; equal to originals under the 2016 Rules
Government e-Marketplace (GeM)	9 August 2016	Online public procurement, mandatory under GFR 2017 r.149; transparency and competition
UMANG	November 2017	One app for central, state and local services

• GeM brings in MSME, women-led and startup sellers. Complaints about quality and pricing continue (verify current transaction value).
• Linked platforms: e-Courts and e-Gram Swaraj.

10. Aadhaar, DBT and digital public infrastructure

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• Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was first set up by executive notification in January 2009, with Nandan Nilekani at its head. It became a statutory body under MeitY through the Aadhaar Act 2016, which was passed as a Money Bill. UIDAI enrols residents and runs authentication.
• Aadhaar is a 12-digit number based on demographic and biometric data. The first was issued on 29 September 2010. It is used to authenticate people for subsidies paid from the Consolidated Fund (s.7).
• The 2019 amendment allowed voluntary KYC with consent and let children opt out at 18.
• The Good Governance Amendment Rules (January 2025) let approved private entities use authentication.

• Enrolment is over 140 crore (verify current).

• Aadhaar case (K.S. Puttaswamy, 26 September 2018, 4:1):

• Upheld for welfare (s.7) and for PAN linking.
• Struck down s.57 (private use) and s.33(2) (national-security disclosure).
• Not mandatory for bank accounts, mobile numbers, school admissions or CBSE/NEET/UGC exams.

• Chandrachud J dissented, partly on the Money Bill route.

• Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) started on 1 January 2013. Benefits go straight into bank accounts, mostly Aadhaar-linked, to cut leakages and middlemen. Examples are PAHAL (LPG) and PM-KISAN (2019). The government claims large savings (verify current).

• JAM trinity: Jan Dhan accounts (2014) + Aadhaar + Mobile (Economic Survey 2014-15). It is the base for DBT.
• Digital public infrastructure (DPI): shared, open digital platforms built as public goods on which public and private services run. The G20 New Delhi Declaration (2023) adopted a framework for it.
• India Stack: layers of open APIs (ready-made software links) that make services possible without being present, without paper and without cash.
• Identity: Aadhaar, e-KYC, eSign.
• Payments: UPI (2016).
• Data: DigiLocker and Account Aggregators.

11. Data protection: the DPDP Act 2023 and Rules 2025

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• The road to the law:
• Puttaswamy (2017) recognised the right to privacy (fundamental-rights).
• The Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee (2017-18) drafted the PDP Bill 2018.

• The PDP Bill 2019 went to a JPC and was withdrawn in August 2022.

• Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 got assent on 11 August 2023. It covers digital personal data processed in India, and data processed abroad when goods or services are offered in India.

• Processing needs consent (free, specific, informed and withdrawable) or a "legitimate use" under s.7, such as State benefits or medical emergencies.

• Data fiduciary: the person or body that decides why and how data is processed. It must keep data accurate and secure, report breaches and erase data once its purpose is over.

• Significant data fiduciaries must have an India-based DPO, independent audits and impact assessments.

• Data principal: the person the data is about. They have rights to information, correction and erasure, grievance redress and nomination. Their duties carry a fine of up to ₹10,000.

• Children (under 18) need verifiable parental consent. Tracking them and showing them targeted ads is banned.
• Consent manager: a body registered with the Board through which a person gives, reviews and withdraws consent across platforms.
• s.17 lets the Centre exempt notified State bodies (for sovereignty, security and public order) and research.
• Data Protection Board of India: set up by the Centre. It inquires into breaches and imposes penalties of up to ₹250 crore (for security failures).
• Appeals go to TDSAT, then the Supreme Court.

• The Centre can block a platform on the Board's advice (s.37).

• DPDP Rules 2025 were notified on 13-14 November 2025 and phase in over 18 months.

• Board provisions applied at once.
• Consent-manager rules apply after 12 months.

• Most fiduciary duties apply after 18 months, around May 2027.

• Critiques: wide State exemptions, no surveillance reform, a Board controlled by the executive, no compensation for victims, and the RTI dilution (Section 4).

12. Risks of digital governance and measuring governance

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• Digital divide: the gap between those who have devices, internet and skills and those who do not. It runs along income, region, gender, age, disability and language.
• NFHS-5 (2019-21): about a third of women had ever used the internet, against over half of men (verify).
• "Digital by default" welfare can shut out the very people it targets.

• Remedies: CSCs, assisted access and offline options.

• Exclusion:

• Fingerprint authentication fails for manual workers and in areas with weak networks.
• Biometric PDS failures were linked to the Jharkhand starvation deaths (2017).

• The payment mandate for rural wages (1 January 2024) led to job cards being deleted.

• Surveillance:

• Lawful interception under IT Act s.69 and the Telecommunications Act 2023.
• Pegasus case (Manohar Lal Sharma v. UoI, 27 October 2021): the State gets no "free pass" just by citing national security. The Court set up a technical committee supervised by Justice R.V. Raveendran.

• In August 2022 the committee found malware on 5 of 29 phones, but could not confirm it was Pegasus. It noted that the Centre did not cooperate.

• Security: the AIIMS ransomware attack (November 2022). CERT-In's 2022 directions require cyber incidents to be reported within 6 hours.

• Measuring governance:
• Worldwide Governance Indicators (World Bank, since 1996) are based on perceptions. Six dimensions: voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption.
• Corruption Perceptions Index (Transparency International) rates about 180 countries on a 0-100 scale. India scored 38 and ranked 96th in 2024 (verify latest).
• Good Governance Index (DARPG, 2019 and 2021) ranks states across ten sectors. Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa led in 2021. NeSDA rates e-service delivery.
• Critique: perception bias, data gaps and governments chasing rankings.

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Exam angles

Prelims — high-yield facts and traps

• RTI time limits: 30 days; 48 hours for life or liberty; +5 days via APIO; 40 days with a third party. First appeal within 30 days; second appeal to the CIC/SIC within 90 days. Fine of ₹250 a day, up to ₹25,000.
• RTI sections:
• s.4: proactive disclosure (17 categories);
• s.8(2): public-interest override;
• s.8(3): 20-year rule, not for (a), (c) and (i);
• s.22: overrides the OSA;

• s.24: Second Schedule bodies must still give corruption and human-rights information; the CBI was added in 2011.

• The CIC panel is the PM, the Leader of Opposition and a Cabinet minister picked by the PM. The 2019 amendment lets the Centre fix tenure and pay (three-year terms). Only citizens can use RTI, and no reasons are needed.

• Case and principle:
• Raj Narain (1975): right to know under Art. 19(1)(a).
• S.P. Gupta (1981): open government.
• Aditya Bandopadhyay (2011): answer sheets.
• Thalappalam (2013): "substantially financed".
• Jayantilal Mistry (2015): RBI inspection reports.
• Puttaswamy (Aadhaar) (2018): welfare and PAN upheld; s.57 struck down.

• Pegasus (2021): no free pass for national security.

• Firsts and dates:

• MKSS (1990, Rajasthan); Tamil Nadu's RTI law (1997).
• UK charter (1991), India's charter (1997); Sevottam (2006, IS 15700).
• Citizen report card (Bengaluru, 1994); MP's Right to Services Act (2010); Meghalaya's social audit law (2017).

• Good Governance Day is 25 December.

• DPDP: the maximum penalty is ₹250 crore and appeals go to TDSAT. Children means under 18. s.17 covers State exemptions. The Rules (November 2025) phase in over 18 months. s.44(3) amended RTI s.8(1)(j).

• e-Governance dates: NeGP 2006 (27, later 31 MMPs); e-Kranti 2015 (44 MMPs); Digital India 1 July 2015 (nine pillars); MyGov 2014; PRAGATI 2015; GeM 2016; UMANG 2017; DBT 2013.
• Indices: WGI is by the World Bank (six dimensions), CPI by Transparency International, and GGI by DARPG (ten sectors).
• Traps:
• "The Whistle Blowers Act 2014 is in force": FALSE.
• "The OSA 1923 has been repealed": FALSE.
• "Citizen's charters are legally enforceable": FALSE (Right to Services Acts are).
• "Social audit was first made mandatory by VB-G RAM G": FALSE (MGNREGA s.17 did so first).
• "Aadhaar is mandatory for bank accounts and mobile SIMs": FALSE.

Mains — GS-II themes

1. RTI at twenty (October 2025): what it achieved, and how it has been weakened by the 2019 amendment, DPDP s.44(3), vacancies, pendency and poor s.4 disclosure.
2. Privacy vs transparency: can Puttaswamy and the right to know be reconciled? Is s.8(2) enough? What happens to social audits and asset disclosure?
3. From citizen's charters to Right to Services Acts and CPGRAMS: making services enforceable, and the limits of time-bound delivery.
4. Social audit as social accountability: lessons from MGNREGA. Do VB-G RAM G's six-monthly audits plus biometric and geo-tagged checks deepen community oversight or replace it?
5. Aadhaar, DBT and DPI: efficiency gains vs exclusion, surveillance and the Money Bill question. India's DPI model after the G20.
6. Is the DPDP framework adequate? Look at the Board's independence, State exemptions, the lack of surveillance reform and the lack of compensation.
7. Whistle-blower protection as unfinished business, the safety of RTI users, and the OSA inside a transparency regime.
8. GS-IV: probity in governance, citizen's charters, and sharing information as an ethical duty.

Current-affairs hooks

• CIC and SIC appointments, vacancy and pendency reports; Supreme Court hearings on political parties under RTI and on DPDP s.44(3) (verify current).
• DPDP phases: consent-manager registration (November 2026), full compliance (May 2027), the first Data Protection Board orders.
• VB-G RAM G in force from 1 July 2026: the first six-monthly social audits, disclosure meetings and disputes over biometric attendance.
• Aadhaar face authentication, private-entity approvals, DBT savings claims and exclusion reports.
• Good Governance Day or Week (25 December), GGI and NeSDA releases, the CPI (every February), data breaches and spyware reports.