A new digital platform, Bribes.fyi, allows Indians to anonymously report corruption, with 616 incidents recorded across 251 cities as of August 17, 2026. The site aims to build a public database of bribery patterns, though it warns the self-reported data should not be used as a definitive national corruption index.
A new independent digital initiative, Bribes.fyi, has launched a crowdsourced platform that allows Indian citizens to report demands for bribes anonymously. Created by developer Aryan Nishad, the portal functions as a public repository for citizens to document their experiences with government services, regardless of whether they paid the requested amount or refused the demand.
As of August 17, 2026, the platform has compiled 616 reports covering 251 cities. The project emphasizes complete anonymity, requiring no user accounts, email addresses, or personal identification for submissions. This design choice aims to lower the barrier for individuals who may fear reprisal for reporting corruption.
When submitting a report, users provide details including the specific department involved, the city, the requested bribe amount, and the ultimate outcome of the interaction. This information is categorized and made available for public viewing, allowing for geographic and departmental comparisons. According to the current data on the platform, police departments, regional transport offices (RTOs), and land revenue departments appear as the most frequently cited government bodies in the reports.
While the platform offers a way to visualize patterns in administrative corruption, it includes clear warnings regarding its limitations. The project clarifies that it is not an official government portal and that the data is entirely self-reported. Because the submissions are anecdotal and unverified, the figures do not represent a scientific or nationwide metric of corruption. There is also a risk that the data could include spam or inaccurate entries, and high report counts in a specific city may simply reflect higher user awareness or internet usage in that area, rather than a higher actual frequency of corruption compared to other regions.
The platform does not provide legal advice, nor does it guarantee that filing a report will trigger an investigation by official bodies like the Central Bureau of Investigation or state anti-corruption bureaus. The primary objective is to increase transparency by aggregating public experiences, which may help identify systemic issues in public service delivery over time. For observers of the Indian business and regulatory environment, projects like these often highlight the ongoing challenges with administrative red tape and unofficial costs that can impact the cost of doing business in certain sectors. The future utility of the platform will depend on its ability to maintain data integrity and whether it manages to garner enough scale to provide meaningful insights into administrative bottlenecks.