THE FILE is a digital news, information and investigation magazine in Kannada. It is committed to building accountability in governance, government, legislatures, judiciary, and public life. It constructs stories based only on documents accessed either through the Right to Information Act or unearthed via journalistic investigation. It also trusts its own journalistic resourcefulness to lead it to vital documents of public interest. 

THE FILE is designed to stay away from writing news stories based either on speculation or unnamed sources, however credible they may be. It also keeps away from opinion. 

THE FILE is run by the Paradarshaka Foundation formed under Section 8 of the Companies Act. It is founded and edited by G Mahantesh, a veteran investigative journalist who has worked in the past for mainstream news television, broadsheet newspapers and digital ventures.