"Conceptually, there are three stages in the promotion of a right to information regime: pre-legislation stage; during drafting stage; and post-legislation stage. Civil society in India has played a role in all the three stages. Accordingly, this paper examines how civil society has 1. brought about a conceptual shift in the debate on right to information; 2. used public hearing as a mode of mobilizing people to demand transparency and accountability; 3. used several methods of social audit to promote transparency and accountability; 4. exerted pressure, through networking, on government for a legislation on right to information; 5. supplied drafts of possible legislation and flagged gaps in the legislation once it was passed; 6. used state-level legislation, created awareness about it, prepared people to use it and officials to implement it. This paper concentrates on the role of civil society in promoting the concept of social audit through four methods: public hearings, report cards, budget information, and social audit under «panchayati raj». Social audit is a way of measuring, understanding, reporting and ultimately improving an organization’s social and ethical performance." (Executive summary, page 3)