Bihar’s creator economy push: How influencers can earn up to Rs 1 lakh per video

The update integrates a performance-linked compensation structure into the state’s public relations framework, tying financial payouts directly to video reach. Earnings under the amended policy are strictly tied to viewership benchmarks within set timelines. 

Payout structure and caps

Under the amended rules, an eligible creator can receive Rs 1,00,000 for first 1 lakh views inside the first 30 days of the upload of the video and an additional Rs 10,000 for every 1 lakh views generated by that video after it completes 30 days of performance.

The payment is capped at ₹1 lakh for a single video. That means the maximum is reached at 10 lakh views.

This makes the mechanism different from a conventional government advertisement contract, where a media organisation is generally paid for advertising government initiatives.

However, the Information and Public Relations Department (IPRD) is yet to issue the detailed notification governing the implementation of the amendment. Therefore, the precise rules governing eligible content, view verification and payment processing are still to be spelt out.

Who is eligible?

The new incentive builds on Bihar’s existing Social Media and Online Media Policy, 2024, rather than opening the scheme to every social-media user.

The eligibility framework comes from Bihar’s Social Media and Online Media Policy, 2024. According to the Information and Public Relations Department’s empanelment portal, social-media accounts with at least 1 lakh followers on Facebook, Instagram, X or YouTube can apply for empanelment. The policy further requires the concerned media to have been in existence for at least one year and asks social-media applicants to submit six months of analytics data

Why is Bihar paying creators?

The move reflects a shift in how Bihar’s government can reach citizens. The state had nearly 99.1 million telecom subscribers as of June 2025, according to TRAI, giving digital platforms a potentially vast addressable audience. 

That sits alongside an established traditional-media market: Hindustan alone had 1.51 crore total readers in Bihar in IRS 2019, while Dainik Bhaskar had 67.06 lakh. The new policy effectively adds social-media creators to this existing government publicity ecosystem, allowing the state to use audience reach as a basis for performance-linked payments.

The economic significance is that the government is not simply buying advertising space. It is creating a system in which the reach of digital content can determine the additional amount paid to the creator.

Is Bihar the first state to pay influencers?

No. Bihar’s move comes against a wider trend of state governments using digital creators as part of their public communication strategies.

Uttar Pradesh is one of the clearest examples. Its Digital Media Policy, 2024 provides for the empanelment of social-media influencers and content creators to publicise government schemes and achievements. The policy allows monthly payments ranging from ₹2 lakh to ₹8 lakh, depending on the category of the digital entity.

Uttar Pradesh’s model is primarily structured around categories of digital platforms and influencers and their advertising potential, with different payment ceilings.

Bihar’s latest amendment puts greater emphasis on the performance of individual videos, with the payment linked directly to views generated over a 30-day period.

That distinction could make Bihar’s model particularly interesting from the perspective of the evolving creator economy.

From government advertising to performance-based publicity

The larger question is whether government communication is beginning to resemble the commercial creator economy.

Brands increasingly work with influencers because they can reach audiences that may be difficult to access through traditional advertising. Bihar’s policy applies a similar logic to government communication: identify creators with an established audience, empanel them, use them to communicate government programmes and link part of their compensation to the reach generated.

Under a conventional advertisement, the government pays for the placement. Under a performance-linked model, the creator has a financial incentive to produce content that attracts viewers.

For creators, meanwhile, the policy turns audience reach into a potential source of income from a new client: the government.

The forthcoming IPRD notification will therefore be critical.

For now, Bihar’s policy represents a notable experiment and can be one that might be followed by many more as people seem to be moving away from traditional medi, so the government is trying to catch up by capturing the influencer media horizon.