A few months ago, while I was on a reporting call with my colleagues, the public policy head of a unicorn got aggressive in fielding our questions. The person said, “I know who’s ‘fed’ you the story.” When I objected* to the word ‘fed’, the person, a former journalist, said dismissively, “I know how all this works”. That statement had some truth. When you switch from journalism to corporate communications and/or public policy, you tend to know how media organizations work and for sometime you can pull off a few stunts. But when the regulatory environment is complex and fast-changing, it requires more than knowing “how it works”. Technologically, the internet is ‘binary’ but socially it is not. And in a country like India, which has the largest digital footprint today, decisions or choices are never binary. Most internet companies have understood this and are frantically ramping up their public affairs teams. In 2022, all major Edtech companies like Byju’s, UpGrad, Unacademy, and Teachmint launched a search for people who can handle corporate affairs and public policy.
There’s a new emerging archetype. Yet, hiring for this role isn’t like bringing in lawyers or CAs where one knows what educational background to look for. Our research shows over 6,700 job listings for “public policy” on job-search portal Indeed and over 5,500 listings for “public affairs” on rival Times Jobs. Overall, there was a 50% increase in openings at Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft in the year ended March 2021 “Earlier, files could only be moved by the people who were in the Delhi corridor, but now, to a large extent, lobbying has changed and most industries are working with the government,” says a public-policy professional. The stakes are high. If the fintech Slice is being cited as a near-failure of public affairs, ShareChat is a shining example of maneuvering policies to cut its rival to size. The gaming company MPL is following the latter’s footsteps. Doing one better, actually. It’s offering free therapy sessions for those who get addicted to gaming. Let me not reveal too much this time!