LobbyWatch opens its ledgers

LobbyWatch is the third layer of the sousveillance stack. RegTrac watches the rule-writers (statutory regulators). SROTrac watches the rule-borrowers (self-regulatory organisations). This register watches the rule-buyers: the interests that try to shape India's financial rules before they are written.

What is on the record on day one

• Consultations ledger — 10 open and closed consultations across RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, PFRDA, IBBI and IFSCA, each with its comment window and a transparency scorecard: was the comment period reasonable, are the comments public, are the minutes published.
• Interests register — 21 industry bodies, think tanks and civil-society players on the policy landscape, from PCI, IAMAI, NASSCOM and IBA to Vidhi, Dvara and CUTS, with their consultation footprint and cross-links to the SRO layer.
• Revolving-door ledger — 32 sourced moves by 15 people between regulator desks and regulated entities: former RBI deputy governors, SEBI whole-time members, IRDAI chairs and their post-office landings. Every row carries a citation.
• Access & RTI playbook — two RTI filings logged so far, plus ready-to-use templates for asking regulators to disclose comments and meeting minutes.

The ground rules

No insinuation without a paper trail. Influence is documented through published comments, RTI replies, minutes and appointment orders — not vibes. Where the record is silent, the register says so; silence is itself a finding when comment processes stay behind closed doors.

What gets added next

The roadmap: a consultation-index scraper so new openings land automatically, a draft-to-final diff engine to show which comments moved the text, and a comments corpus pulled via RTI where regulators do not publish. The blog will note what changed each week.