Role of ICT for Record Management in the Wake of RTI Act

Right to Information (RTI) for accessing official information is one of the powerful tools bestowed to every citizen of India. It is a unique example in the developing world especially in the country with a population of about 1.21 billion. This right to citizens has been provided to make official working more transparent so as to minimize the secrecy and resultant corruption. The outcome of such a measure has been remarkable so far and increasing awareness is empowering more people to monitor the official working. Apart from the citizens’ perspective, there also exists another viewpoint on RTI, which is of the officials catering to RTI needs. These people are generally critical to the RTI activists and the citizens who are demanding voluminous information in the pretext of RTI Act. This according to them is hampering the working efficiency of public offices because the limited number of employees is engaged in RTI related work. In this context, it is more important to concentrate on official record management especially with the use of ICT. This will make information readily available with the single click of button. This paper tries to explore all such possibilities. This will also prove helpful in guiding the public officials to plan and work on similar lines.