According to the Final Report of the Vision Foundation (2005), http://planningcommission.gov.in/reports/sereport/ser/stdy
_sagspr.pdf, which has been submitted to the Planning Commission, Government of India:

According to Safeguarding the Right to Information-Interim Findings of the People’s RTI Assessment 2008, October 2008, conducted by RTI Assessment & Analysis Group (RaaG) and National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) (in collaboration with other institutes/ organizations),

http://rti-assessment.org/interim_report.pdf

• The Right to Information Act suffers from the problems of a weak infrastructure and public information officers (PIOs) who are unaware of their exact role. Almost half the PIOs interviewed in rural India said they were not aware that they were PIOs

• An overwhelming number of PIOs—nodal officers who receive and dispense with RTI applications — cite lack of training and unfamiliarity with the law as key hurdles in their ability to effectively service RTI requests

• The RTI Act has made a positive impact on the lives of people like no other Act has done before. More and more people are filing RTI queries to procure information, which was earlier denied by government officials.

• The government responds, though sometimes slowly. Of the total RTI applications filed, nearly two-thirds got a response from the public authorities. However, only a third of these applications were responded to within the stipulated 30 days.

• Meghalaya was “the worst performer” with no PIOs found at the village level, while Rajasthan was “the best performer” with nearly all PIOs available and interviewed. The other major finding of the study was that more men than women were using RTI across the country. Rural applicants were overwhelmingly male. And the same goes for Delhi, where over three-fourths of 162 randomly selected applicants surveyed were male

• In Maharashtra, the Act has been a success with around 3.7 lakh citizens filing RTI queries in the last three years. RTI activists and citizens, however, say the growing pendency of second appeals is cause for concern.

• "Freedom of information is a fundamental human right and … the touchstone of all the freedoms to which the UN is consecrated."
• The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) was adopted by the General Assembly in 1966, which guarantees right to freedom of opinion.
• In 1993, the UN Commission on Human Rights established the office of the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression. Part of the Special Rapporteur’s mandate is to clarify the precise content of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
• In 1980, the Commonwealth Law Ministers meeting in Barbados stated "public participation in the democratic and governmental process was at its most meaningful when citizens had adequate access to official information".
• In March 1999, the Commonwealth Expert Group Meeting in London adopted a document setting out a number of guidelines on the right to know and freedom of information as a human right
• Principle 10 of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development first recognised the fact that access to information on the environment, including information held by public authorities, is the key to sustainable development and effective public participation in environmental governance.
• Agenda 21, the ‘Blueprint for Sustainable Development’, the companion implementation document to the Rio Declaration, states: "Individuals, groups and organisations should have access to information relevant to environment and development held by national authorities, including information on products and activities that have or are likely to have a significant impact on the environment, and information protection measures."
• At the national level, several countries have laws, which codify, at least in part, Article 10 of the Rio Declaration.
• In 1998, as a follow-up to the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21, Member States of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the European Union signed the legally binding Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the Aarhus Convention).
• Sweden’s Freedom of the Press Act required the disclosure of official documents upon request.
• Another country with a long history of freedom of information legislation is Colombia, whose 1888 Code of Political and Municipal Organisation allowed individuals to request documents held by government agencies or in government archives.
• The USA passed a freedom of information law in 1967; this was followed by legislation in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, all in 1982.
• In Asia, the Philippines recognised the right to access information held by the State relatively early, passing a Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees in 1987. A Code on Access to Information was adopted in Hong Kong in March 1995, and in Thailand, the Official Information Act came into effect in December 1997. In South Korea, the Act on Disclosure of Information by Public Agencies came into effect in 1998, and in Japan, the Law Concerning Access to Information Held by Administrative Organs was enacted in April 2001.
• South Africa remains the only African country to have actually passed freedom of information legislation.