Beginning April 2026, TARSHI has a small budget from which we are able to offer a modest amount of INR 1,500/- (Rupees Fifteen Hundred only) to content writers and creators (with a bank account in India) whose content has been reviewed, edited and featured on our In Plainspeak platform. This is a token amount to thank writers for trusting In Plainspeak with their time, labour and experience.

Terms and conditions below:

• All submissions will go through TARSHI’s editorial process. The editorial team reserves the right to accept or reject any content based on its suitability for the platform, at any point in the editorial process. Submissions that have been rejected by the editorial team or withdrawn by the writer before publication will not be compensated.
• The payment rate of INR 1,500/- (inclusive of all taxes) is standard across the categories of In Plainspeak, namely: Issue in Focus, Interview, Voices, I Column, Review, Fiction and Poetry, On the Ground With, Then and Now, Brushstrokes, and Quick Bytes.
• The payment is only for original content written in English or Hindi and featured in In Plainspeak.
• The rate of INR 1,500/- is per article/content type, not per writer/creator. If there are multiple writers/creators, the amount will be divided equally between them. Each writer/creator must submit their own invoice to TARSHI for their respective share.
• Each writer/creator may receive a payment for a maximum of three (3) articles/content per financial year (Apr-Mar), whether as a solo writer/creator or for co-written content, to enable a diverse set of writers to be able to access this budget. Each instance of payment, whether for individual content or co-written content, counts towards this limit.
• If a writer/creator has reached this limit, their accepted and finalised articles/content may still be featured in In Plainspeak but they will not be eligible to claim payment for additional content within the same financial year. If this writer/creator works on joint content, their co-writers who are within the limit may still claim the INR 1,500/- which will be split between them, with individual invoices. If none of the co-writers are within the payment limit, the content may still be published, but no payment will be made.
• Writers/creators may wish to waive this amount, in which case it will remain in TARSHI’s pool of funds to pay other writers.
• This payment is not available for any contributors who are employees or consultants with TARSHI at the time of submission.
• As per In Plainspeak’s copyright policies, all content will be owned by TARSHI unless authors explicitly request to retain rights; TARSHI may print, translate, share on social media, and distribute to non-commercial publications (with possible title changes and author notification). Authors may link with credit; republication requires permission via email. For more details, please check our submission guidelines, copyright and syndication policies here.

Payment process

• TARSHI is only able to pay persons with a bank account in India.
• Upon publication, the TARSHI team will reach out to the content writer/creator to take forward the payment of this amount. This will include filling out an invoice with details of name, PAN, bank account, and more.
• For invoices received until the 24th of the month, TARSHI will make the payment by the last day of the month. For invoices that come after the 24th, payment will be made in the following month.
• If we do not receive an invoice within 30 days of reaching out, we will take it as a sign that the content writer/creator does not wish to claim the amount.

This payment is subject to the availability of budgets. If there is no budget available, writers will be informed in advance and they may withdraw their submission if they so wish