The politics of information | The Indian Express

The politics of information | The Indian Express

Written by Rajendran Narayanan, Rakshita Swamy, Nikhil Dey |Updated: April 4, 2019 1:18:52 am

Rajendran Narayanan teaches at Azim Premji University, Bangalore and works on questions of transparency and accountability.

The writer is consultant, UNDP, Delhi. Views are personal.

The writer is an activist based in rural Rajasthan.

The politics of information

Information systems strengthen socio-economic transformation, but transparency and accountability are crucial.

The Right to Information campaign has, for long, made a demand for a Janata Information system (JIS), instead, driven by a democratic and moral compulsion towards an information system designed by and for the people.

An article in this publication, ‘The learning state: How information becomes insight’ (IE, March 18), written by two economists, has made some important points about “information”, but it is their perspective on “insight” that needs to be challenged.