Subhash Chandra Agrawal (born 10 January 1950) is an Indian businessman and right to information activist. He holds the

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

for having written the most published letters to newspaper editors.

Early life and education

Subhash Chandra Agrawal was born on 10 January 1950 in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

to Om Prakash Agrawal and Padmawati. He finished his schooling from Anglo Sanskrit Victoria Jubilee Senior Secondary School,

Daryaganj Daryaganj (literally "A market near a river") is a neighbourhood of Delhi inside the walled city of Old Delhi. The "darya" (lit. "River") refers to the river Yamuna which was just outside the walled city. Daryaganj is one of the three sub-divisi ...

. He attended

Delhi College of Engineering Delhi Technological University (DTU), formerly Delhi College of Engineering (DCE) is a state university in Rohini, Delhi, India. It was established in 1941 as Delhi Polytechnic. In 1952, it started giving degrees after being affiliated with th ...

(now Delhi Technological University) where he graduated with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

(

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

). He earned his post-graduate diploma in

marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...

and

sales management Sales management is a business discipline which is focused on the practical application of sales techniques and the management of a firm's sales operations. It is an important business function as Sales (accounting), net sales, through the sa ...

from Faculty of Management Studies,

University of Delhi The Delhi University (DU, ISO 15919, ISO: ), also and officially known as the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate research university, research Central university (India), central university located in Delhi, India. It ...

. He wanted to join the

Indian Administrative Services The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. The IAS is one of the three All India Services along with the Indian Police Service (IPS) and the Indian Forest Service (IFS). ...

(IAS), but his uncle "forced imto join the family business, ndcrushed isdreams of becoming an IAS officer".

Letters and right to information

Agrawal wrote his first letter to the editor of the

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

newspaper ''Dainik Hindustan'' about a bus conductor of

Delhi Transport Corporation The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) is a public sector passenger road transport corporation that manages bus services in Delhi, India. It was incorporated in November 1971 as a wholly-owned corporation of the Government of India to provide ...

who did not issue tickets but asked passengers to pay for them. He then raised concerns about the irregular timings of the

Taj Express The Taj Express was started in 1964 to serve tourists travelling from Delhi to Agra. It reduced the travelling time from over three hours to around two and a half hours. Taj Express was started along the lines of Deccan Queen, which ran as a ...

with the Ministry of Railways. He had written 3,699 such published letters as of 31 January 2006, which is a ''

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...

'' entry "for the most published letters written to newspaper editors over an individual's lifetime". He has utilised the

Right to Information Act Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theor ...

(RTI Act) as a tool to combat corruption in India. The Central Information Commissioner brought the office of

Chief Justice of India The chief justice of India (CJI) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India and the highest-ranking officer of the Indian judiciary. The Constitution of India grants power to the President of India to appoint, as recommended by the outg ...

under the purview of the RTI Act after Agrawal's application. This decision was subsequently upheld by the High Court of Delhi in 2010 and the Supreme Court of India in 2019.

Controversy

Agrawal has been criticised for overuse of RTI instead of pressuring authorities into putting information on their websites without resorting to CIC. But other activists feel that Agrawal’s impact outweighs the criticism he attracts.

Personal life

Agarwal is married to Madhu Agarwal, a social worker who herself holds the Guinness World Record for having written the most published letters (447) in newspapers in a calendar year (2004). His wife and nephew help him by sharing their ideas. Subhash Agrawal reads six newspapers daily and watches news on television, but not cricket. He lives in Dariba,

Chandni Chowk The Chandni Chowk (meaning Moonlight Square) is one of the oldest and busiest markets in Old Delhi, India. There is another location in Pune with the name Chandani Chowk. Located close to the Old Delhi railway station, the Mughal-era Red Fort ...

, Delhi.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agrawal, Subhash Chandra Living people 1950 births Businesspeople from Delhi Faculty of Management Studies – University of Delhi alumni Right to Information activists Delhi Technological University alumni