Under the RTI Act, every public authority is required to designate which officer to receive and process requests?

Under Section 5 of the Right to Information Act, every public authority is required to designate Central Public Information Officers or State Public Information Officers, as the case may be, in all its administrative units or offices, to receive requests for information and to provide information to persons making such requests. The PIO is the key functionary responsible for processing RTI applications. The designation of PIOs ensures that there is an identifiable officer in each public authority responsible for handling information requests.