About RTI Wiki — India's independent Right to Information reference
An initiative of BigHelpers
RTI Wiki is an editorial initiative of BigHelpers — a small Indian civic-tech studio that builds free, open tools for citizens. BigHelpers also runs the parent BigHelpers helpline, the Indian Constitution explainer site, and a handful of public-interest dashboards. RTI Wiki is the largest single project under that umbrella and operates with full editorial independence.
We chose to build RTI Wiki because despite RTI being one of India’s most powerful citizen rights, almost everything written about it online is either paid (filing-as-a-service vendors), incomplete (legacy 2005-era pages), or wrong (AI-generated fluff). We wanted a single up-to-date, trustworthy, free reference — in plain language, citing the Act, with working tools that draft your application for you.
The infrastructure (servers, domain, AI tooling) is paid for by BigHelpers. There is no investor, no government grant, and no political affiliation. If you want to support the work, the simplest thing is to share a guide that helped you.
One-line: RTI Wiki is an independent, non-commercial 2026 reference for India's Right to Information Act, 2005, run by a small editorial team and supported by reader contributions. We publish guides, tools and datasets so any Indian citizen can file an RTI without paying a service fee.
What RTI Wiki is
RTI Wiki is India's working reference for the Right to Information Act, 2005. We publish:
- 712+ articles explaining every aspect of the RTI Act and how to use it
- 11 free AI tools + Citizen 360 (Drafter, AwaazRTI voice-to-RTI, Outcome Predictor, First Appeal, PIO Reply Checker, Timeline, Fee Calculator, Explain-Legal, Research)
- 300+ indexed CIC/Supreme Court/High Court decisions in a searchable database
- All 540 Lok Sabha + 243 Rajya Sabha members with photos, term-end, contact details, and 3 ready RTI templates per MP
- 1,409 Parliament bills (2020-2026) with stage timeline, committee reports, and gazette PDFs
- 36 state hubs × 25 scheme guides = 900 long-tail “RTI for X in Y” guides
- 50 city hubs × 15 service guides = 750 city-level guides
- Hindi summaries of the top 25 articles (more languages planned)
- Open datasets in CSV (CC-BY 4.0) for journalists, researchers, civic-tech projects
What RTI Wiki is NOT
- Not a law firm. We do not provide legal advice. We provide structured information.
- Not a paid filing service. We do not file RTIs on behalf of users. We give you the tools to file your own.
- Not affiliated with the Government of India or any political party.
- Not affiliated with any single state government.
- Not a community forum. Our forum is for Q&A; the editorial content is curated by our team.
Who runs RTI Wiki
RTI Wiki is run by an independent editorial team. We do not disclose individual identities of all editors due to the sensitive nature of some RTI activism work, but the lead editorial board is publicly named on the editorial board page.
Editorial decisions are made independently of any commercial, political or governmental interest. Our editorial policy is public.
How we are funded
RTI Wiki sustains operations via:
- AdSense (visible to non-members; logged-in members see fewer ads)
- Newsletter sponsorship (clearly labelled when present)
- Voluntary reader contributions (no paywall, no subscription)
- NGO partnerships for specific projects (always disclosed)
We do not accept payment for editorial coverage, link placements, or favourable treatment of any service. Our editorial policy forbids quid-pro-quo arrangements.
Methodology
Every claim on RTI Wiki traces to:
- Statutory text (RTI Act 2005, state RTI rules, related Acts) — cited inline
- Case-law (CIC orders, SC/HC judgments) — cited with reporter reference
- Government circulars (DoPT Master Circular, ministry OMs) — cited with notification number
- Authoritative news for ongoing developments
See our methodology page for sourcing standards, fact-checking protocol, and AI-content disclosure.
Corrections
We correct errors. If you find one, file a correction request — typically resolved within 48 hours. All non-trivial corrections are logged publicly.
Cited by
Public mentions of RTI Wiki across journalism, academic research, and government training material are listed at cited-by.
Contact
- Editorial: editorial@bighelpers.in
- Corrections: contact form at contact page
- Media / press: press@bighelpers.in
Trust
We display a green Verified badge at the top of every editorial article to indicate it has been reviewed by our editorial team within the last 12 months. The full date of last review is visible at the bottom of each article.
Quick links
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