Innovation Approaches of “WhispersInTheCorridors.com” in the Field of Indian Bureaucracy: A Case Study

Introduction

India is governed by the politicians and bureaucrats by means of delegated legislation. Administrative accountability is enforced by various controls. Media is one of the means to keep the administration under a close watch and in check. Backed by around 40 years of journalistic experience, owner of whispers in the corridor, turned toward the Internet to fulfill his dream of creating a site tracking decision makers (administrators, politicians and corporate world) of our country. The Website carries tidbits of information about transfers and postings of IAS and IPS officers around the country. An officer might even get to know some whispers about themselves, such as whether he is likely to be posted out soon. With a considerable fan-following in the state bureaucracy, most officials can be seen hooked on to their computers during office hours, browsing the site which they claim, provides a bird’s-eye view of the happenings in the country’s bureaucracy. The site launched by the owner of whispersinthecorridors.com carries “inside news about government policy changes and personnel”.

The Whispers publisher, the media incarnation, had its beginning as a Hindi journalist reporting for a news agency from Ujjain. He came to be posted as newspaper correspondent in Bhopal, in early eighties. He worked for the Free Press Journal that had opened an edition from Indore. For someone new to the print media (he had till then been a UNI wire service reporter), the publisher kept up a steady flow of ‘exclusive’ news stories, much to the surprise and envy of his colleagues in the media. He was quick to earn a grudging recognition from media peers; he developed a network of contacts in official and political circles.

Molded in traditional style of journalism, the editor of whispersinthecorridors.com used to write a very popular weekly column “Satta Ke Galiyaro se…” (From the corridors of power)(source- cities.sulekha.com). The column revolved around happenings and grapevines doing rounds in the corridors of power. The column was very popular among common man and bureaucracy and is still remembered after 15 years. He edited Bhopal-based English dailies, National Mail and Hindi daily Dainik Naidunia. He has been associated with the UNI, Free Press Journal, Dainik Bhaskar and the Hindustan times. He had been writing columns on bureaucracy before launching his sites.

In 2001, the owner with 40 years of journalism career thought of doing something new and started experimenting in electronic media with his website “whispers in corridors” with two operators and a single PC. The site caught the attention of viewers with its authentic and concise information on transfers/promotions of bureaucrats/technocrats, policy matters and other juicy stuff related to policy makers.

Starting with 2 hits on the very first day of the launching of the site, at present the number of hits have crossed 1,00,00,000(one crore). Out of these, around 87500 are officials from the cow belt.