Corruption Is Widespread in India

Corruption is widespread in India.
India is ranked 85 out of 179 countries in

Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, although its score has
improved consistently from 2.7 in 2002 to 3.4 in 2008. Corruption has taken the role
of a pervasive aspect of Indian politics and bureaucracy. The economy of India was
under socialist-inspired policies for an entire generation from the 1950s until the
1980s. The economy was shackled by extensive regulation, protectionism and public
ownership, leading to pervasive corruption and slow growth. A 2005 study done by
Transparency International (TI) in India found that more than 50 per cent of the
people had first-hand experience of paying bribe or peddling influence to get a job
done in a public office. Taxes and bribes are common between state borders;
Transparency International estimates that truckers pay annually $5 billion in bribes.
Officials often steal state property. In Bihar, more than 80 per cent of the subsidised
food aid to poor is stolen.
Corruption in Government Offices
In cities and villages throughout India, “mafia raj” consisting of municipal and other
government officials, elected politicians, judicial officers, real estate developers and
law enforcement officials, acquire, develop and sell land in illegal ways. Many state-
funded construction activities in India, such as road building, are dominated by
construction mafia, which are groupings of corrupt public works officials, materials
suppliers, politicians and construction contractors. Shoddy construction and material
substitution result in roads and highways being dangerous, and sometimes simply
washed away when India’s heavy monsoon season arrives. In government hospitals,
corruption is associated with non- availability of medicines, getting admission
through back-door, consultations with doctors and availing diagnostic services
illegally. Civil servants /public officials were rated by 13 of respondents as
the second most corrupt institution in the country. Other institutions that were polled
included Parliament/legislature, the private sector, media and the judiciary.
Corruption in Politics
Political parties are perceived to be the most corrupt institutions by Indians, according
to 2009 Global Corruption Barometer. The Barometer, a global public opinion survey
released by Transparency International, found that 58 per cent Indian respondents
identified politicians to be the single most corrupt individuals. Forty-Five per cent of
the people sampled felt that the government is ineffective in addressing corruption in
the country. Forty-two per cent respondents analysed that government’s actions in the
fight against corruption was effective.
Corruption in the Private Sector
Almost 9 per cent of those surveyed considers business and private sector to be
corrupt. The private sector used bribes to influence public policy, laws and
regulations, believe over half of those polled for the survey. The business-related
findings of the Barometer sends a powerful signal to the private sector to prove that
they are clean and to communicate this clearly to the public. Forty-five of those polled
felt that the existing channels for making corruption-related complaints were
ineffective. Very few lodged formal complaints, demonstrating serious defects in the
perceived legitimacy and effectiveness of channels for reporting and addressing
bribery.
Corruption in Media
As many as 8 per cent of the respondents in India consider that corruption in the
media affects the lives of the people. The media, while not being perceived as clean,
scored best with just over 40 per cent of respondents labelling the sector as corrupt,
globally.
Corruption and Economic Growth
The world would be a better place without corruption and it does impose a cost on the
economy. But the contention, that it is our biggest problem and we need to eliminate
it before meaningful change can occur, is not supported by evidence. We need to look
beyond the simple answer to figure out what else is holding back economic growth in
our country. Just as there are people who believe that overpopulation is our biggest
problem, there are others who attribute most of our difficulties to corruption.
There is no doubt that corruption is a pervasive and aggravating phenomenon but
even a cursory comparative analysis should make one skeptical of the assertion that it
is a major cause of our underdevelopment. The issue of corruption is very high on the
political agenda of the Chinese government. But despite corruption the economy has
expanded continuously over the past fifteen years at historically unprecedented rates
of growth. Today China is being spoken of as a major economic power of the future.
The concern with corruption stems less from its impact on growth and more from the
social discontent it causes and which negatively impacts the credibility of the
government. Indonesia is another country where considerable economic development
occurred despite very high levels of corruption that are well documented. The
country was very much a part of the East Asian miracle whose momentum was
broken by the financial crisis in 1997.
While the other regional economies have recovered, Indonesia is lagging
not because of corruption but because of the political instability that ensued after the
fall of the Suharto government.
High-level corruption on the other hand, can have much more lasting effects if public
resources are diverted from economically useful to economically useless activities.
But the fact remains that there are economies that have continued to grow even in the
face of such corruption.
In South Korea, family members of the former President have gone to jail, and Prime
Ministers have been indicted in Japan on charges of corruption. Nevertheless Japan is
among the richest countries in the world and South Korea has vaulted into the ranks
of developed countries within the period of a few decades. This is not a defence of
corruption. The world would be a better place without it and it does impose a cost on
the economy. But the contention that corruption is our biggest problem and we need
to eliminate it before meaningful change can occur is not supported by evidence. We
need to look beyond the simple answer to figure out what else is holding back
economic growth in our country.
Causes
Corruption in India has wings, not wheels. As the nation grows, the corrupt also
grows to invent new methods of cheating the government and public. The causes of
corruption are many and complex. The following are some of the causes of
corruption.
• Emergence of a political elite which believes in interest-oriented rather than nation-

oriented programmes and policies.
• Artificial scarcity created by people with malevolent intentions wrecks the fabric of
the economy.
• Corruption is caused as well as increased because of the change in the value system
and ethical qualities of men who administer. The old ideals of morality, service and
honesty are regarded as anachronistic.
• Tolerance of people towards corruption, complete lack of intense public outcry
against corruption and the absence of a strong public forum to oppose corruption
allow corruption to reign over people.
• Vast size of population coupled with widespread illiteracy and the poor economic
infrastructure lead to endemic corruption in public life.
• In a highly inflationary economy, low salaries of government officials compel them
to resort to corruption. Graduates from Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) with
no experience draw a far handsome salary than what government secretaries draw.
• Complex laws and procedures deter common people from seeking help from the
government.
• Election time is a time when corruption is at its peak. Big industrialists fund
politicians to
meet high cost of election and ultimately to seek personal favour. Bribery to
politicians
buys influence, and bribery by politicians buys votes. In order to get elected,
politicians bribe poor, illiterate people.
Consequences of Corruption
Corruption is as much a moral as a development issue. It can distort entire decision

making processes on investment projects and other commercial transactions, and the
very social and political fabric of societies. The following are some of the
consequences of corruption.
Economic Development
Some fairly robust statistical evidence has now been furnished showing that higher
corruption is associated with (i) higher (and more costly) public investment; (ii) lower
government revenues; (iii) lower expenditures on operations and maintenance; and
(iv) ensuing lower quality of public infrastructure. The evidence also shows that
corruption increases public investment by making it more expensive, while reducing
its productivity. Corruption also acts as an additional tax on investment by lowering
the potential return to an investor on both the initial investment and on subsequent
returns. In India, current corruption levels mean that the implicit corruption tax on
investment is almost 20 percentage points.
The impact of corruption on the quality of public infrastructure is all too clearly
visible in towns and cities of India. The Public Works Department and the State
Electricity Boards which are largely responsible for the maintenance of roads and
management of power distribution respectively are among the worst corrupt
government departments in India.

Corruption Is Widespread in India

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Corruption Is Widespread in India

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Corruption is widespread in India.

India is ranked 85 out of 179 countries in

• Emergence of a political elite which believes in interest-oriented rather than nation-

Corruption is as much a moral as a development issue. It can distort entire decision

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