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Research paper
‘Adopting the RTI Act as a mechanism to fight corruption to promote effective aid delivery in India’

Preeti Kannan
SID: 309302196

1

Contents
1.

Introduction

2. India’s interaction with aid and corruption
2.1 India and aid
2.2 Corruption in aid in India
3. Good governance and aid effectiveness: How important is tackling corruption for aid to be effective in recipient countries?
3.1 Aid effectiveness: The endless debate
3.2 The relationship between good governance and corruption in aid
4. To what extent if any can the Right To Information (RTI) Act be used as a mechanism to fight corruption to promote aid effectiveness in India?

4.1 The access to information movement
4.2 Scope of the legislation
4.3 Adopting the RTI Act for foreign aid
5. Conclusion

2

Section 1: Introduction
Good governance has become a buzzword in development today. Fighting corruption, raising accountability and promoting transparency are increasingly perceived as being indispensable to the notion of good governance. The concept of good governance is gaining popularity and is being used unsparingly in the international community to promote development, economic and social security and peace. There is realisation that robust engagement with the civil society is at the heart of good governance and citizen participation has become a recurring theme because of the inherent impact policies can have on citizens – the ultimate beneficiaries. This research paper examines the different scholarly debates around good governance and aid effectiveness. It draws parallels to similar debates in the Indian context by using the newly-enacted Right to Information Act (RTI) as a case study for good governance since corruption, lack of accountability and transparency have been often cited as impediments to governance. 1
The RTI Act, which started as a small social justice movement in a village in Rajasthan and became a nation-wide campaign for a


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