v s das : towards making right to information act more meaningful speech by mr v s das, executive director of the reserve bank of india, at a seminar on right to information by moneylife foundation, mumbai, 3 september 2011. * * * hon ’ ble information commissioner, shri shailesh gandhi, executive director, union bank of india, shri s. s. mundra, secretary, bank depositors ’ association, shri ashok rawat, managing editor of moneylife magazine, ms. sucheta dalal, ladies & gentlemen : it gives me great pleasure to participate in this seminar which is graced by the presence of our central information commissioner, shri shailesh gandhi. shri gandhi, as we all know, is one of the pioneers who worked relentlessly towards placing the transparency issue in governance right on top of the public agenda in our country. it is thanks to the earnest and passionate efforts of people like him that the right to information movement in india has become part of the overall public policy debate for increased transparency in public life. i extend warm congratulations to the organizers on the timely initiative of organising this seminar and providing an appropriate platform to discuss and deliberate the best plausible approach on making effective use of the right to information ( rti ) act to the best advantage of society, without needless friction between information seekers and information providers. as you are all aware, the rti act provides a practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities, in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority. it rests on the fundamental premise of how citizens can meaningfully express their voice and articulate their concerns on the acts of omission and commission of public agencies. it has been said that “ information is oxygen for a democratic society ”. democracy requires an informed citizenry and transparency of information which are vital to its functioning and also to contain corruption and to hold governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed. this truly conforms to the growing recognition of the importance of transparency for effective democratic processes. as the old saying goes, “ sunshine is the strongest antiseptic ”. the rti has empowered indian citizens who have found a powerful tool to bring measurability and accountability at all levels of governance. this is also being facilitated by large - scale use of the act by the media and civil right activists to bring transparency and objectivity in the functioning of various public offices. however, the reach of civil

. only a small part of the programme is subject to risk sharing among the central banks of the eurosystem. additionally, the governing council decided on limits for the eurosystem ’ s purchases of individual bond issues and for its overall purchases of debt of any individual 3 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches country. this is designed to ensure that governments continue to rely on the capital markets for their funding. these measures make the qe programme less problematic than earlier sovereign bond purchase programmes that aimed to reduce the risk premiums of individual countries. nonetheless, one important risk of sovereign bond purchases remains. the national central banks have become the most important creditors to their governments, which might ultimately put the independence of monetary policy at risk. exiting its ultra - loose monetary policy would influence governments ’ financing conditions much more directly than our conventional monetary policy instruments. and the pressure might rise on the eurosystem to keep funding costs low in order to ensure the sustainability of public finances. if one adjusts the recent deficit figures for the currently favourable business cycle, one cannot fail but see that consolidation has in effect stalled in the euro area member states. the european commission expects practically no improvement in the structural balance this year and next. and there is the risk that the current low interest rates might make public finances appear to be in better shape than they actually are. high public debt ratios can become a burden when interest rates begin to rise again. in the european monetary union, however, fiscal discipline is absolutely essential. the set - up of the monetary union can further compound the tendency of governments to finance their spending through debt, as the consequences of bad policy choices can more easily be externalised to neighbouring countries. 4 monetary policy and heterogeneity ladies and gentlemen when comparing us and european monetary policy, the institutional set - up is not the only difference that springs to mind. in the euro area, monetary policy is complicated by a higher degree of heterogeneity compared to the us. let ’ s take unemployment : in the euro area, the weighted standard deviation of member states ’ unemployment rates from 2009 to 2017 is 5. 7 percentage points. in the us, the weighted standard deviation is only 1. 2 percentage points for the same period. heterogeneity was higher pre - crisis as well, at 2. 2 percentage points from 1999 to 2008, compared to 0. 8 percentage point in the us. a common monetary policy in a currency union means that one size has to fit all –