Mumbai: SML Digital Media Pvt. Ltd., will soon launch “The Secretariat”, a niche portal focused on demystifying governance and government policy that are key to understanding the rapid transformation in the world’s fifth largest economy, India.
Veteran journalist and former Press Trust of India editor Rajesh Mahapatra will lead the venture as its editor-in-chief. The portal is expected to go live on 1 November.
The Secretariat is a non-partisan platform that will track and explain policies that impact a range of economic, social, environmental and digital domains. It adopts a dive-deep approach to unpacking and studying policy and policy-making, while also aiming to provide a platform for stakeholders to find meaningful solutions.
“We will focus on five key themes – Digitalising Economy, Sustainability, Future of Work, Urbanising India and Geo-economics,” said SML Digital Media Pvt. Ltd. director Kajal Vadodaria.
“The functioning of the government and bureaucracy at the Centre and the states will also be a focus of our coverage, besides tracking the people and processes behind policy-making,” she added.
In its effort to deepen and democratise the discourse on public policy, The Secretariat will collaborate with research institutions and disseminate the outcomes of their research to a wider audience.
“The Secretariat will offer a distinctive universe of content that is not merely informative but also deeply insightful and demonstrably intelligent so that our consumers - whether knowledge-seekers or investors looking to understand India - can make informed choices,” said Mahapatra, who has extensively written and reported on India’s economic transformation over the past three decades.
“Digital audiences are coming of age. The demand for niche, quality content is growing. The Secretariat seeks to respond to this growing need,” said Mahapatra who had previously steered digital transformation efforts at the Hindustan Times as its chief content officer.
“On the content front, we will take a less-is-more approach – making our stories stand out for high-impact analysis, expansive reportage and exclusive insights,” Mahapatra said. “We will have a stylish, contemporary voice, committed to views, counter views and opinion and not doctrinaire.”
The Secretariat will follow a Freemium model. While the bulk of the content will be behind a paywall, a curated set of policy news can be accessed.
“At SML Digital, we have built a robust tech and product team over the past year to ensure The Secretariat deploys the best-in-class techniques of digital story-telling, including AI, and offers such compelling content that our audiences will be happy to pay,” Vadodaria said.
