a storehouse of information on a plethora of topics. we have proactively placed a large amount of information on our website, such as circulars, master circulars, publications and press releases, as also a data base on indian economy. the bank has started the process of digitization of records with suitable software solution with scanning, storing indexing and retrieval features. at the instance of the central information commission, reserve bank of india has formulated a disclosure policy under the right to information act, 2005, in respect of the information held by it. the policy, which contains an indicative negative list / classes of information which the reserve bank considers as exempt from disclosure under the provisions of the right to information act, 2005, has been hosted on the reserve bank of india website. we are probably the first public authority to declare upfront as to what information can be disclosed and what is exempt from disclosure. we believe that such clear enunciation would clear all doubts from the minds of information seekers, and help to bring down the number of requests and also minimize the use of the appellate mechanism. apart from placing the information, as required under section 4 ( 1 ) ( b ) of the act on our website, we are also placing information disclosed under the act, if it is of general interest, on our website in a disclosure log. the number of applications received by us has risen progressively year on year, from 796 in 2005 – 06 ( october – june ) to 5, 087 in ( 2010 – 11 ). our disclosure record has been good, with 78 percent of the requests being met in full and 5 percent in part. only 6 percent requests were declined fully and remaining 11 percent were disposed of in other manner. during the six years of implementation of the rti act in rbi, we received over 18, 000 requests. only about 16 % of the requestors went in for first appeal. the rbi top management and the central board of directors monitor the progress made by us in the implementation of the rti act through monthly, quarterly and annual reports submitted by the concerned division. having said this, it would be pertinent to stress that being the country ’ s central bank, rbi is the banker to government and banks, regulator and supervisor of the financial system, manager of currency operations, custodian of forex reserves etc., and is, therefore, privy to vital and sensitive information, which cannot be placed in the public domain due to its sensitivity and impact on

society organizations and social activists is limited owing to the geographical size and population and, perhaps, it is due to this that the impact of the act has yet to attain its envisioned level. our data reveals that the number of applications we received from the underdeveloped and backward regions of the country was far less in relation to the developed regions. thus applications from the north - east ( assam : 4 and tripura : 2 ) constituted barely 0. 1 percent of the 5, 087 applications received during 2010 – 11. if this is generally the case, there is need for educating people in these regions on rti. i have been closely associated with the implementation of the rti act in my organization right from its inception, first as the cpio and then as the appellate authority and have derived great satisfaction from the assignment. i wish to narrate briefly our own experience in this regard and the challenges that we faced. at the outset, the tone was set by our governor who declared that reserve bank of india should welcome rti act as an opportunity to improve our corporate governance through greater transparency and accountability. the personal interest taken by the governor in the implementation of the act played an important role in sensitizing our staff towards the spirit of the new law. bis central bankers ’ speeches we studied systems prevalent in certain other central banks with a view to adopting best practices in systems and procedures. the law was new and its proper implementation was important for the bank ’ s reputation. further, it was necessary to maintain consistency in our responses and ensure that the exemptions available in the act were applied correctly. we, therefore, began with a centralized model with one cpio who was an executive director and the senior most deputy governor as appellate authority. later, after about four years, on gaining sufficient experience on what our stance should be on various types of requests, coupled with the fact that increased awareness of the act had resulted in a significant rise in the number of applications, a partially decentralised approach in the implementation of rti was put in place with effect from november, 2009. accordingly, dissemination of information under rti is now being done in a decentralized manner by the central office departments with the heads of various central office departments and the banking ombudsmen designated as central public information officers and an executive director as the appellate authority. further, senior officers have been designated as central assistant public information officers at each of our 27 regional offices and central office departments. the rbi website is