Vivek Pandey

Vivek Pandey (Hindi: विवेक पाण्डे) is an Indian RTI activist, journalist, and YouTuber. He has filed more than 1,000 RTIs to different government departments of India. His work came into light in 2018, when he exposed a leak of the data of NEET and JEE aspirant students from the database.
He is an established journalist, and has written articles for digital media houses like Youth Ki Awaaz and Opindia.
== Early life ==
Vivek was born in the village of the Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh, to a middle-class family. His primary education started from Kendriya Vidyalaya, Udaipur, Rajasthan, and he completed his high secondary education from Madhya Pradesh.
== Protest against CBSE ==
Vivek came into light and got recognized as a student rights activist after a protest held at the CBSE office at Preet Vihar of New Delhi in 2016. He led a group of students who arrived at the CBSE office, protesting against the paper leak scandal of NEET Phase-II (2016).
== Exposure of NEET data leak ==
Vivek in 2018 discovered that the data of students registered for the NEET exam that year, was being sold online. He published the incident in different newspapers to garner attention. After no actions from authorities, in 2019, he filed a second RTI at CBI, Bhopal against websites selling student data.
After no reaction from the side of authorities, Vivek sent a complaint letter to CBI seeking investigation on the NEET and JEE data leak scam.
== NEET seat booking scam ==
In 2018, he also raised questions on the counselling process of the Karnataka state. Toppers of NEET examination who could have easily secured a seat at government medical colleges, in order to block seats for private medical colleges, took part in the counselling process of private medical institutions. After successfully blocking seats in their second or third rounds of counselling, they abandoned their seats. These seats were then sold by brokers in auctions.
==Books==
In order to bring awareness towards the RTI Act in India, he has published an eBook titled The RTI Act 2005 Simplified : Voice of Rights, with its first edition published on 18 December 2021.
== RTI activism ==
=== Education ===
In the year 2017, Vivek started his work as an RTI activist. He filed his first RTI to the Central Board of Secondary Education, seeking information about the status of the case registered against the paper leak of the NEET examination in 2016. In 2020, he attended an interview with The Indian Express on his RTI work.
 
In the year 2020, Vivek inquired about the application form fees for the NEET examination, revealing that the Nation Testing Agency had collected ₹ 200 crores in the form of application form fees.
=== Animal welfare ===
An RTI application filed by Vivek at the Madhya Pradesh Gaupalan Evam Pashu Samvardhan Board, had sought the details of funds spent on cows from 2015 to 2020. In its reply, the board said that the state government had spent ₹ 5.42 crore on a total of 28 cowsheds in Bhopal for procuring fodder and maintenance in the last five years, with more than 32 percent of the funds transferred to the VHP cowshed. The cowshed was allocated the highest amount, Rs 37 lakh, in 2017, followed by Rs 32 lakh in 2019.
Despite receiving ₹ 180 crores from the government, the authorities at the zoo in Delhi spent only ₹ 66.29 lakh on the treatment of animals, revealed an RTI reply. In the RTI reply to Vivek, the zoo authorities stated that 456 animals had died in the last three years, and only a part of the money received in 10 years was spent on the medical treatment of the animals.
== References ==
Category:Educational YouTubers
Category:Indian YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2014