In philosophical, theological, or moral discussions, corruption is spiritual or moral impurity

or deviation from an ideal. Corruption may include many activities including bribery and
embezzlement. Government, or 'political', corruption occurs when an office-holder or other
governmental employee acts in an official capacity for personal gain.
The word corrupt when used as an adjective literally means "utterly broken".
[1]
The word
was first used by Aristotle and later by Cicero who added the terms bribe and abandonment
of good habits.
[2]
Morris,
[3]
a professor of politics, corruption is the illegitimate use of public
power to benefit a private interest. Economist I. Senior
[4]
defines corruption as an action to
(a) secretly provide (b) a good or a service to a third party (c) so that he or she can influence
certain actions which (d) benefit the corrupt, a third party, or both (e) in which the corrupt
agent has authority.
Contents
1 Scales of corruption
o 1.1 Petty corruption
o 1.2 Grand corruption
o 1.3 Systemic corruption
2 Corruption in different sectors
o 2.1 Government/Public Sector
2.1.1 Political corruption
2.1.2 Police corruption
2.1.3 Judicial corruption
o 2.2 Unions
3 Methods
o 3.1 Bribery
o 3.2 Embezzlement, theft and fraud
o 3.3 Extortion and blackmail
4 Types of corrupt gains
o 4.1 Abuse of discretion
o 4.2 Favoritism, nepotism and clientelism
5 Preventing corruption
6 Anti-corruption programmes
7 Legal corruption
8 See also
9 References
10 Further reading
11 External links
Scales of corruption


Anti-corruption program in Ethiopia, 2000
Corruption can occur on different scales. There is corruption that occurs as small favours
between a small number of people (petty corruption), corruption that affects the government
on a large scale (grand corruption), and corruption that is so prevalent that it is part of the
every day structure of society, including corruption as one of the symptoms of organized
crime (systemic corruption).
Petty corruption
Petty corruption occurs at a smaller scale and within established social frameworks and
governing norms. Examples include the exchange of small improper gifts or use of personal
connections to obtain favors. This form of corruption is particularly common in developing
countries and where public servants are significantly underpaid.
Grand corruption
Grand corruption is defined as corruption occurring at the highest levels of government in a
way that requires significant subversion of the political, legal and economic systems. Such
corruption is commonly found in countries with authoritarian or dictatorial governments but
also in those without adequate policing of corruption.
The government system in many countries is divided into the legislative, executive and
judiciary branches in an attempt to provide independent services that are less prone to
corruption due to their independence.
Systemic corruption
Systemic corruption (or endemic corruption)
[5]
is corruption which is primarily due to the
weaknesses of an organization or process. It can be contrasted with individual officials or
agents who act corruptly within the system.
Factors which encourage systemic corruption include conflicting incentives, discretionary
powers; monopolistic powers; lack of transparency; low pay; and a culture of impunity.
[6]

Specific acts of corruption include "bribery, extortion, and embezzlement" in a system where
"corruption becomes the rule rather than the exception."
[7]
Scholars distinguish between
centralized and decentralized systemic corruption, depending on which level of state or
government corruption takes place; in countries such as the Post-Soviet states both types
occur.
[8]

Corruption in different sectors
Corruption can occur in different sectors, whether they be public or private industry or even
NGOs.
Government/Public Sector
Public sector corruption. corruption of the political process and of government agencies such
as the police. Recent research by the World Bank suggests that who makes policy decisions
(elected officials or bureaucrats) can be critical in determining the level of corruption because
of the incentives different policy-makers face
[9]

Political corruption
Main article: Political corruption


A political cartoon from Harper's Weekly, January 26, 1878, depicting U.S. Secretary of the
Interior Carl Schurz investigating the Indian Bureau at the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The original caption for the cartoon is: "THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR
INVESTIGATING THE INDIAN BUREAU. GIVE HIM HIS DUE, AND GIVE THEM
THEIR DUES."
Political corruption is the abuse of public power, office, or resources by elected government
officials for personal gain, e.g. by extortion, soliciting or offering bribes
[10]
It can also take
the form of office holders maintaining themselves in office by purchasing votes by enacting
laws which use taxpayers' money.
[11]
Evidence suggests that corruption can have political
consequences- with citizens being asked for bribes becoming less likely to identify with their
country or region.
[12]

Police corruption
Main article: Police corruption
Police corruption is a specific form of police misconduct designed to obtain financial
benefits, other personal gain, and/or career advancement for a police officer or officers in
exchange for not pursuing, or selectively pursuing, an investigation or arrest. One common
form of police corruption is soliciting and/or accepting bribes in exchange for not reporting
organized drug or prostitution rings or other illegal activities. Another example is police
officers flouting the police code of conduct in order to secure convictions of suspects for
example, through the use of falsified evidence. More rarely, police officers may deliberately
and systematically participate in organized crime themselves. In most major cities, there are
internal affairs sections to investigate suspected police corruption or misconduct. Similar
entities include the British Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Judicial corruption
Judicial corruption refers to corruption related misconduct of judges, through receiving or
giving bribes, improper sentencing of convicted criminals, bias in the hearing and judgement
of arguments and other such misconduct.
Governmental corruption of judiciary is broadly known in many transitional and developing
countries because the budget is almost completely controlled by the executive. The latter
undermines the separation of powers, as it creates a critical financial dependence of the
judiciary. The proper national wealth distribution including the government spending on the
judiciary is subject of the constitutional economics.
It is important to distinguish between the two methods of corruption of the judiciary: the
government (through budget planning and various privileges), and the private.
[13]

Unions
Labor racketeering is the domination, manipulation, and control of a labor movement in order
to affect related businesses and industries. It can lead to the denial of workers rights and
inflicts an economic loss on the workers, business, industry, insurer, or consumer.
The historical involvement of La Cosa Nostra in labor racketeering has been thoroughly
documented: More than one-third of the 58 members arrested in 1957 at the Apalachin
conference in New York listed their employment as labor or labor-management relations.
Three major U.S. Senate investigations have documented La Cosa Nostras involvement in
labor racketeering. One of these, the McClellan Committee, in the late-1950s, found systemic
racketeering in both the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Hotel Employees and
Restaurant Employees International Union. In 1986, the Presidents Council on Organized
Crime reported that five major unionsincluding the Teamsters and the Laborers
International Union of North Americawere dominated by organized crime. In the early
1980s, former Gambino Family Boss Paul Castellano was overheard saying, Our job is to
run the unions.
Labor unions provide a rich source for organized criminal groups to exploit: their pension,
welfare, and health funds. There are approximately 75,000 union locals in the U.S., and many
of them maintain their own benefit funds. In the mid-1980s, the Teamsters controlled more
than 1,000 funds with total assets of more than $9 billion.
The FBI currently has several investigative techniques to root out labor law violations:
electronic surveillance, undercover operations, confidential sources, and victim interviews.
They also have numerous criminal and civil statutes to use at their disposal, primarily through
the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Statute. Citation needed
The Teamsters are the best example of how efficiently the civil RICO process can be used.
For decades, the Teamsters has been substantially controlled by La Cosa Nostra. In recent
years, four of eight Teamster presidents were indicted, yet the union continued to be
controlled by organized crime elements. The government has been fairly successful at
removing the extensive criminal influence from this 1.4 million-member union by using the
civil process.
[14]

Methods
In systemic corruption and grand corruption, multiple methods of corruption are used
concurrently with similar aims.
[15]

Bribery
Main article: Bribery
Bribery is the improper use of gifts and favors in exchange for personal gain. This is also
known as kickbacks or, in the Middle East, baksheesh. It is the most common form of
corruption. The types of favors given are diverse and include money, gifts, sexual favors,
company shares, entertainment, employment and political benefits. The personal gain that is
given can be anything from actively giving preferential treatment to having an indiscretion or
crime overlooked.
[16]

Bribery can sometimes be part of a the systemic use of corruption for other ends, for example
to perpetrate further corruption. Bribery can make officials more susceptible to blackmail or
extortion.
Embezzlement, theft and fraud
Main article: Embezzlement
Embezzlement and theft involve someone with access to funds or assets illegally taking
control of them. Fraud involves using deception to convince the owner of funds or assets to
give them up to an unauthorized party.
Examples include the misdirection of company funds into "shadow companies" (and then into
the pockets of corrupt employees), the skimming of foreign aid money, scams and other
corrupt activity.
Extortion and blackmail
Main article: Extortion
While bribery is the use of positive inducements for corrupt aims, extortion and blackmail
centre around the use of threats. This can be the threat of violence or false imprisonment as
well as exposure of an individual's secrets or prior crimes.
This includes such behavior as an influential person threatening to go to the media if they do
not receive speedy medical treatment (at the expense of other patients), threatening a public
official with exposure of their secrets if they do not vote in a particular manner, or demanding
money in exchange for continued secrecy.
Types of corrupt gains
Abuse of discretion
Main article: Abuse of discretion
Abuse of discretion refers to the misuse of one's powers and decision-making facilities.
Examples include a judge improperly dismissing a criminal case or a customs official using
their discretion to allow a banned substance through a port.
Favoritism, nepotism and clientelism
Main article: Nepotism
Favouritism, nepotism and clientelism involve the favouring of not the perpetrator of
corruption but someone related to them, such as a friend, family member or member of an
association. Examples would include hiring a family member to a role they are not qualified
for or promoting a staff member who belongs to the same political party as you, regardless of
merit.
Some states do not forbid these forms of corruption.
Preventing corruption
R. Klitgaard
[17]
postulates that corruption will occur if the corrupt gain is greater than the
penalty multiplied by the likelihood of being caught and prosecuted:
Corrupt gain > Penalty Likelihood of being caught and prosecuted
The degree of corruption will then be a function of the degree of monopoly and discretion in
deciding who should get how much on the one hand and the degree to which this activity is
accountable and transparent on the other hand. Still, these equations (which should be
understood in a qualitative rather than a quantitative manner) seem to be lacking one aspect: a
high degree of monopoly and discretion accompanied by a low degree of transparency does
not automatically lead to corruption without any moral weakness or insufficient integrity.
Also, low penalties in combination with a low probability of being caught will only lead to
corruption if people tend to neglect ethics and moral commitment. The original Klitgaard
equation has therefore been amended by C. Stephan
[18]
into:
Degree of corruption =Monopoly +Discretion
Transparency Morality
According to Stephan, the moral dimension has an intrinsic and an extrinsic component. The
intrinsic component refers to a mentality problem, the extrinsic component to external
circumstances like poverty, inadequate remuneration, inappropriate work conditions and
inoperable or overcomplicated procedures which demoralize people and let them search for
alternative solutions.
According to the amended Klitgaard equation, limitation of monopoly and regulator
discretion of individuals and a high degree of transparency through independent oversight by
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the media plus public access to reliable
information could reduce the problem. Any extrinsic aspects that might reduce morality
should be eliminated. Additionally, a country should establish a culture of ethical conduct in
society with the government setting the good example in order to enhance the intrinsic
morality.
Anti-corruption programmes

This section may be too technical for most readers to understand. Please help
improve this section to make it understandable to non-experts, without removing the
technical details. The talk page may contain suggestions. (May 2014)
A document
[19]
produced by the economic and private sector professional evidence and
applied knowledge services help-desk discusses some of the existing practices on anti-
corruption. They found:
The theories behind the fight against corruption are moving from a principal-agent
approach to a collective action problem. Principal-agent theories seem not to be
suitable to target systemic corruption.
The role of multilateral institutions has been crucial in the fight against corruption.
UNCAC provides a common guideline for countries around the world. Both
Transparency International and the World Bank provide assistance to national
governments in term of diagnostic and design of anti-corruption policies.
The use of anti-corruption agencies have proliferated in recent years after the signing
of UNCAC. They found no convincing evidence on the extent of their contribution, or
the best way to structure them.
Traditionally anti-corruption policies have been based on success experiences and
common sense. In recent years there has been an effort to provide a more systematic
evaluation of the effectiveness of anti-corruption policies. They found that this
literature is still in its infancy.
Anti-corruption policies that may be in general recommended to developing countries
may not be suitable for post-conflict countries. Anti-corruption policies in fragile
states have to be carefully tailored.
Anti-corruption policies can improve the business environment. There is evidence that
lower corruption may facilitate doing business and improve firms productivity.
Rwanda in the last decade has made tremendous progress in improving governance
and the business environment providing a model to follow for post-conflict
countries.
[19]

The adoption of an anti-corruption programme is necessary for an organization to prove that
despite a particular case of bribery it nevertheless has adequate procedures in place to prevent
persons associated with it from bribing. The analysis of case law shows that companies are
demonstrating the effectiveness of their programmes and reduce their potential
liabilities
[disambiguation needed]
by selfdeclaring situations to relevant authorities.
[20]

Legal corruption
Though corruption is often viewed as illegal, there is an evolving concept of legal
corruption,
[21][22][original research?]
as developed by Daniel Kaufmann and Pedro Vicente. It might
be termed as processes which are corrupt, but are protected by a legal (that is, specifically
permitted, or at least not proscribed by law) framework.
Subscribe
Contact
Journalism
Book
Teaching
About
Home
Definitions and Types of Corruption
31 Jul 09
By being able to define what something is then we can understand how to prevent it. That is
not the same as suggesting that you ignore corruption. It is the opposite. Blandly labelling
something as corruption is meaningless. For example, we can not cure cancer unless we know
what type of cancer it is.

Traditionally, intellectual argument on ethics in Ireland has qualified as assuming that corrupt
behaviour is wrong. We know that. The challenge is to diagnose it so we can cure it.

My book, Political Corruption in I reland, which will be published next year, will
demonstrate example after example, of how we got it wrong over two hundred years because
we reverted to such crude analysis.


The challenge is to distinguish between systemic and individual corruption; petty and grand
corruption; moral and legal corruption; and rumours and reality of corruption.


A Glossary of Terms:





Systemic corruption
As opposed to exploiting occasional opportunities, endemic or systemic corruption is when
corruption is an integrated and essential aspect of the economic, social and political system,
when it is embedded in a wider situation that helps sustain it. Systemic corruption is not a
special category of corrupt practice, but rather a situation in which the major institutions and
processes of the state are routinely dominated and used by corrupt individuals and groups,
and in which most people have no alternatives to dealing with corrupt officials. Examples
might include contemporary Bangladesh, Nigeria, Kenya, Cameroon and many others.
(Michael Johnston: Fighting Systemic Corruption: Social Foundations for Institutional
Reform.)

Sporadic (individual) corruption
Sporadic corruption is the opposite of systemtic corruption. Sporadic corruption occurs
irregularly and therefore it does not threaten the mechanisms of control nor the economy as
such. It is not crippling, but it can seriously undermine morale and sap the economy of
resources.

Political (Grand) corruption
Political corruption is any transaction between private and public sector actors through which
collective goods are illegitimately converted into private-regarding payoffs. Political
corruption is often used synonymously with grand or high level corruption, distinguished
from bureaucratic or petty corruption because it involves political decision-makers. Political
or grand corruption takes place at the high levels of the political system, when politicians and
state agents entitled to make and enforce the laws in the name of the people, are using this
authority to sustain their power, status and wealth. Political corruption not only leads to the
misallocation of resources, but it also perverts the manner in which decisions are made.
Political corruption is when the laws and regulations are abused by the rulers, side-stepped,
ignored, or even tailored to fit their interests. It is when the legal bases, against which corrupt
practices are usually evaluated and judged, are weak and furthermore subject to downright
encroachment by the rulers.

Grand corruption
High level or grand corruption takes place at the policy formulation end of politics. It refers
not so much to the amount of money involved as to the level in which it takes place: grand
corruption is at the top levels of the public sphere, where policies and rules are formulated in
the first place. Usually (but not always) synonymous to political corruption.

Petty corruption
Small scale, bureaucratic or petty corruption is the everyday corruption that takes place at the
implementation end of politics, where the public officials meet the public. Petty corruption is
bribery in connection with the implementation of existing laws, rules and regulations, and
thus different from grand or political corruption. Petty corruption refers to the modest sums
of money usually involved, and has also been called low level and street level to name
the kind of corruption that people can experience more or less daily, in their encounter with
public administration and services like hospitals, schools, local licensing authorities, police,
taxing authorities and so on.

Above taken from: http://www.u4.no/document/faqs5

Legal and Moral Corruption
Corruption is derived from the Latin verb rumpere, to break. According to this approach,
corruption is where the law is clearly broken. This requires that all laws must be precisely
stated, leaving no doubts about their meaning and no discretion to the public officials. A legal
interpretation of corruption provides a clearly demarcated boundary between what is a
corrupt activity and what is not. If an officials act is prohibited by laws established by the
government, it is corrupt; if it is not prohibited, it is not corrupt even if it is abusive or
unethical. (John A. Gardiner, 1993. Defining Corruption. In: Corruption and Reform 7)


The legal approach provides a neutral and static method of adjudicating potentially emotive
and perception determined concepts of corruption. An understanding of corruption from law
perspective serves to underline a deterioration of self-regulated behaviour and a dependence
on the legal approach to determine right from wrong. The complexities of modern
governance and a proliferation of corruption scandals have corresponded with a proliferation
of complex corruption legislation.

Legislating for behaviour warrants focus upon the legality of an action and not the morality
of that same action. Morality is increasingly being legislated for in the absence of and a loss
of faith in self regulated behaviour. Although an act is committed within legal parameters it
may lie outside moral boundaries. A corrupt act can be camouflaged by lawful justification.
For example, undue emphasis on narrow legalism has obscured more subtle yet costly
manifestations of misgoverance where legal corruption may be more prevalent than
illegal forms. (D. Kaufmann, September 2006, Corruption, Governance and Security. In:
World Economic Forum. Global Competitiveness Report 2004/2005.)

From this perspective corruption encompasses undue influence over public policies,
institutions, laws and regulations by vested private interests at the expense of the public
interest. Cultural change, rather than legal change, may be necessary to impede corrupt
behaviour. Non-corrupt actions may be within the letter of the law but do not account for the
spirit of the law. The legal approach diminishes the role of moral discretion and is
constrained by clearly defined edicts.

Above taken from Elaine Byrne, 2007. The Moral and Legal Development of Corruption:
Nineteeth and Twentieth Century Corruption in I reland. PhD Thesis, University of
Limerick.








Corruption in India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Political corruption

Concepts
Bribery
Cronyism
Kleptocracy
Economics of corruption
Electoral fraud
Nepotism
Slush fund
Plutocracy
Political scandal
Corruption by country
Europe
Albania
Armenia
Belgium
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Greece
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Ukraine
Asia
Afghanistan
Bahrain
Bangladesh
China
India
Indonesia
Iran
Kyrgyzstan
North Korea
Pakistan
Philippines
South Korea
Africa
Angola
Congo
Egypt
Ghana
Kenya
Mauritius
Nigeria
Somalia
South Africa
Zimbabwe
North America
Canada
Mexico
United States
Cuba
South America
Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Paraguay
Peru
Venezuela
Oceania and the Pacific
Australia
New Zealand
Papua New Guinea
Transcontinental countries
Russia
Turkey
v
t
e
Corruption in India is a major issue that adversely affects its economy.
[1]
A study conducted
by Transparency International in year 2005 found that more than 62% of Indians had
firsthand experience of paying bribes or influence peddling to get jobs done in public offices
successfully.
[2][3]
In its study conducted in year 2008, Transparency International reports
about 40% of Indians had firsthand experience of paying bribes or using a contact to get a job
done in public office.
[4]

In 2012 India has ranked 94th out of 176 countries in Transparency International's Corruption
Perceptions Index, tied with Benin, Colombia, Djibouti, Greece, Moldova, Mongolia, and
Senegal.
[5]

Most of the largest sources of corruption in India are entitlement programmes and social
spending schemes enacted by the Indian government. Examples include Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and National Rural Health Mission.
[6][7]
Other
daily sources of corruption include India's trucking industry which is forced to pay billions in
bribes annually to numerous regulatory and police stops on its interstate highways.
[8]

Indian media has widely published allegations of corrupt Indian citizens stashing trillions of
dollars in Swiss banks. Swiss authorities, however, deny these allegations.
[9][10]

The causes of corruption in India include excessive regulations, complicated taxes and
licensing systems, numerous government departments each with opaque bureaucracy and
discretionary powers, monopoly by government controlled institutions on certain goods and
services delivery, and the lack of transparent laws and processes.
[11][12]
There are significant
variations in level of corruption as well as in state government efforts to reduce corruption
across India.
Contents
1 Politics
2 Bureaucracy
o 2.1 Land and property
o 2.2 Tendering processes and awarding contracts
o 2.3 Medicine
o 2.4 Science and technology
o 2.5 Income tax department
o 2.6 Preferential award of mineral resources
o 2.7 Driver Licensing
o 2.8 Trends
3 Black money
o 3.1 Black Money in Switzerland
4 Business and Corruption
5 Judiciary
6 Armed forces
7 Anti-corruption efforts
o 7.1 Right to Information Act
o 7.2 Anti-corruption laws in India
o 7.3 Anti-corruption police and courts
o 7.4 Civic anti-corruption organisations
8 Factors contributing to corruption in India
9 Impact of corruption
o 9.1 Loss of credibility
o 9.2 Economic loss
o 9.3 Lower corruption, higher growth rates
10 See also
11 References
12 Further reading
13 External links
Politics
See also: Booth capturing
As of December 2008, 120 of India's 523 parliament members were accused of crimes, under
India's First Information Report procedure wherein anyone can allege another of committing
a crime.
[13]
Many of the biggest scandals since 2010 have involved very high level
government officials, including Cabinet Ministers and Chief Ministers, such as in the 2G
spectrum scam (1760 billion), the 2010 Commonwealth Games scam (700 billion), the
Adarsh Housing Society scam, the Coal Mining Scam (1860 billion), the Mining Scandal in
Karnataka and the Cash for Vote scam.
Bureaucracy
A 2005 study done by Transparency International in India found that more than 62% of the
people had firsthand experience of paying bribe or peddling influence to get a job done in a
public office.
[3]
Taxes and bribes are common between state borders; Transparency
International estimates that truckers pay annually 222 billion (US$ 4.5 billion) in
bribes.
[8][14]

Government regulators and police share in bribe money, each to the tune of 43% and 45%
respectively. The en route stoppages including those at checkpoints and entry-points take up
to 11 hours in a day. About 60% of these (forced) stoppages on road by concerned authorities
such as government regulators, police, forest, sales and excise, octroi, weighing and
measuring department are for extorting money. The loss in productivity due to these
stoppages is an important national concern. The number of truck trips could increase by 40%,
if forced delays are avoided. According to a 2007 World Bank published report, the travel
time for a Delhi-Mumbai trip can be reduced by about 2 days per trip if the corruption and
associated regulatory stoppages to extract bribes was eliminated.
[14][15][16]

A 2009 survey of the leading economies of Asia, revealed Indian bureaucracy to be not only
the least efficient out of Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia,
Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Philippines and Indonesia, but also that working with India's civil
servants was a "slow and painful" process.
[17]

Land and property
See also: Illegal housing in India
Officials are alleged to steal state property. In cities and villages throughout India, 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.
[18][page needed][better source needed]

Tendering processes and awarding contracts
A 2006 report claimed state-funded construction activities in Uttar Pradesh, such as road
building, were dominated by construction mafias, which are groupings of corrupt public
works officials, materials suppliers, politicians and construction contractors.
[19]

Corruption caused problems in government funded projects are not limited to the state of
Uttar Pradesh. According to The World Bank, aid programmes are beset by corruption, bad
administration and under-payments. As an example, the report cites only 40% of grain
handed out for the poor reaches its intended target. The World Bank study finds that the
public distribution programmes and social spending contracts have proven to be a waste due
to corruption.
[20]

As an example, the government implemented the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) on 25 August 2005. The Central government
outlay for this welfare scheme is 400 billion (US$6.7 billion) in FY 20102011.
[21]
After 5
years of implementation, in 2011, the programme was widely criticised as no more effective
than other poverty reduction programmes in India. Despite its best intentions, MGNREGA
faces the challenges of corrupt officials reportedly pocketing money on behalf of fake rural
employees, poor quality of the programme's infrastructure, and unintended destructive
effect
[clarification needed]
on poverty.
[7][22]

Medicine
In Government Hospitals, corruption is associated with non-availability/duplication of
medicines, getting admission, consultations with doctors and availing diagnostic services.
[3]

National Rural Health Mission is another health care-related government programme that has
been subject to large scale corruption allegations. This social spending and entitlement
programme hoped to improve health care delivery across rural India. The programme has
been managed since 2005 by the Ministry of Health of the Indian government. The Indian
government mandated a spending of INR 277 billion in 200405, and increased it annually to
be about 1% of India's gross domestic product. The National Rural Health Mission
programme has been clouded by a large-scale corruption scandal in which top government
appointed officials were arrested, several of whom died under mysterious circumstances
including one in prison. Corruption, waste and fraud-related losses from this government
programme has been alleged to be 100 billion (US$2 billion).
[23][24][25][6]

Science and technology
CSIR, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, has been flagged in ongoing efforts
to root out corruption in India.
[26]
Despite being established with the directive to do
translational research and create real technologies, CSIR has been accused of transforming
into a ritualistic, overly-bureaucratic organisation that does little more than churn out
papers.
[27][28]

There are many issues facing Indian scientists, with some - such as MIT systems scientist VA
Shiva Ayyadurai - calling for transparency, a meritocratic system, and an overhaul of the
bureaucratic agencies that oversee science and technology.
[29][30][31]
Sumit Bhaduri stated,
"[t]he challenges of turning Indian science into part of an innovation process are many. Many
competent Indian scientists aspire to be ineffectual administrators [due to administrative
power and political patronage], rather than do the kind of science that makes a difference".
[32]

Prime minister Manmohan Singh spoke at the 99th Indian Science Congress and commented
on the state of the sciences in India, after an advisory council informed him there were
problems with "the overall environment for innovation and creative work" and a 'warlike'
approach was needed.
[33]

Income tax department
There have been several cases of collusion of officials of the income tax department of India
for preferential tax treatment and relaxed prosecutions in exchange for bribes.
[34][35]

Preferential award of mineral resources


Protests against corruption in Pune.
See also: Illegal mining in India
In August 2011, an iron ore mining scandal became a media focus in India. In September
2011, Janardhana Reddy an elected member of Karnataka's legislative assembly was
arrested on charges of corruption and illegal mining of iron ore in his home state of
Karnataka. It was alleged that his company received preferential allotment of resources,
organised and exported billions of dollars worth of iron ore to China in recent years, without
paying any royalty to the state government exchequer of Karnataka or the central government
of India, and these Chinese companies made payment to shell companies controlled by Reddy
and registered in Caribbean and north Atlantic tax havens.
[36][37]

It was also alleged that corrupt government officials cooperated with Reddy, starting from
government officials in charge of regulating mining to government officials in charge of
regulating port facilities and shipping. These officials received monthly bribes in exchange
for enabling the illegal export of illegally mined iron ore to China. Such scandals have led to
a demand in India for consensually driven action plan to eradicate the piracy of India's
mineral resources by an illegal-political-corrupt government officials-business nexus,
removal of incentives for illegal mining, creation of incentives for legal mining and domestic
use of iron ore and steel manufacturing.
[36][37]

IAS officers who have worked on to put up a stronghold against the illegal mining mafia have
faced severe backlashes from the government in direct and indirect ways in the past. Recent
and glaring example of this is the suspension of the IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal in UP
after her strong response to illegal sand mining mafia in the corruption riddled state.
Driver Licensing
A study conducted between 2004 and 2005 found that India's driver licensing procedure was
a hugely distorted bureaucratic process and allows drivers to be licensed despite their low
driving ability through promoting the usage of agents. Individuals with high willingness to
pay make a significant payment above the official fee and most of these extra payments are
made to agents, who act as an intermediary between bureaucrats and applicants.
[38]

The average licensee paid Rs 1080, approximately 2.5 times the official fee of Rs 450, in
order to obtain a license. On average, those who hired agents had a lower driving ability, with
agents helping unqualified drivers obtain licenses and bypass the legally required driving
examination. Among the surveyed individuals, approximately 60% of the license holders did
not take the licensing exam and 54% of those license holders failed an independent driving
test.
[39]

Agents are the channels of corruption in this bureaucratic driver licensing system, facilitating
access to licenses among those who are unqualified to drive. Some of the failures of this
licensing system are caused by corrupt bureaucrats who collaborate with agents by creating
additional barriers within the system against those who did not hire agents.
[38]

Trends
Professor Bibek Debroy and Laveesh Bhandari claim in their book Corruption in India: The
DNA and RNA that the public officials in India may be cornering as much as 921 billion
($18.42 billion), or 1.26 per cent of the GDP, through corruption.
[15]
The book claims most
bribery is in the transport industry, real estate and government delivered services.
Bribery and corruption are pervasive, but some sectors tend to witness a relatively higher
degree of such instances. A 2013 EY(Ernst & Young) Study
[40]
reports following sectors,
perceived as the most vulnerable to corruption: Infrastructure & Real Estate, Metals &
Mining, Aerospace & Defense, Power & Utilities. There are a range of specific factors that
make a sector more susceptible to bribery and corruption risks than others. Factors like high
use of middlemen, large value contracts, liasioning activities etc. drive the depth, volume and
frequency of corrupt practices in vulnerable sectors.
A 2011 KPMG study reports India's real estate, telecommunications and government-run
social development projects as the three top most corruption plagued sectors. The study found
India's defence, information technology industry and energy sectors are the most competitive
and least corruption prone sectors.
[11]

CMS India claims in its 2010 India Corruption Study report that socio-economically weaker
section of the Indian society is most adversely affected by government corruption these
include the rural and urban poor. The study additionally claims that corruption perception
nationwide has decreased between 2005 to 2010. Over the 5-year period, significantly more
number of people from the middle class as well as the poorest segments of Indian society
surveyed, in all parts of the India, claimed government corruption had dropped over time, and
they had lesser direct experiences with demands for bribes.
[41]

The table below compares the perceived anti-corruption effort across some of the major states
in India.
[12]
A rising index implies higher anti-corruption effort and falling corruption.
According to this table, the states of Bihar and Gujarat have experienced significant
improvements in their anti-corruption efforts, while the conditions have worsened in the state
of Assam and West Bengal. Consistent with the results in this table, in 2012, a BBC News
report claimed the state of Bihar has transformed in recent years to become the least corrupt
state in India.
[42]

Index trends in major states by respective anti-corruption effort
[12]

State 199095 1996-00 200105 200610
Bihar 0.41 0.30 0.43 0.88
Gujarat 0.48 0.57 0.64 0.69
Andhra Pradesh 0.53 0.73 0.55 0.61
Punjab 0.32 0.46 0.46 0.60
Jammu & Kashmir 0.13 0.32 0.17 0.40
Haryana 0.33 0.60 0.31 0.37
Himachal Pradesh 0.26 0.14 0.23 0.35
Tamil Nadu 0.19 0.20 0.24 0.29
Madhya Pradesh 0.23 0.22 0.31 0.29
Karnataka 0.24 0.19 0.20 0.29
Rajasthan 0.27 0.23 0.26 0.27
Kerala 0.16 0.20 0.22 0.27
Maharashtra 0.45 0.29 0.27 0.26
Uttar Pradesh 0.11 0.11 0.16 0.21
Orissa 0.22 0.16 0.15 0.19
Assam 0.21 0.02 0.14 0.17
West Bengal 0.11 0.08 0.03 0.01
Black money
Main article: Indian black money
Black money refers to money that is not fully legitimately the property of the 'owner'. A
white paper on black money in India by the Government of India suggests two possible
sources of black money in India.
[9]
The first includes activities not permitted by the law, such
as crime, drug trade, terrorism, and corruption, all of which are illegal in India. The second,
more likely source is that the wealth may have been generated through a lawful activity but
accumulated by failing to declare income and pay taxes. Some of this black money ends up in
illicit financial flows across international borders, such as deposits in tax haven countries.
A November 2010 report from the Washington-based Global Financial Integrity estimates
that over a 60-year period, India lost US$213 billion in illicit financial flows beginning in
1948; adjusted for inflation, this is estimated to be 462 billion in 2010 dollars, or about $8
billion per year ($7 per capita per year). The report also estimated the size of India's
underground economy at approximately US$640 billion at the end of 2008 or roughly 50% of
the nation's GDP.
[43]

Black Money in Switzerland
According to a 2010 The Hindu article, unofficial estimates indicate that Indians had over
US$1456 billion in black money stored in Swiss banks (approximately USD 1.4 trillion).
[44]

While some news reports claimed that data provided by the Swiss Banking Association
[45]

Report (2006) showed India has more black money than the rest of the world combined,
[46][47]

a more recent report quoted the SBA's Head of International Communications as saying that
no such official Swiss Banking Association statistics exist.
[48]

Another report said that Indian-owned Swiss bank account assets are worth 13 times the
country's national debt. These allegations have been denied by Swiss Bankers Association.
James Nason of Swiss Bankers Association in an interview about alleged black money from
India, holds that "The (black money) figures were rapidly picked up in the Indian media and
in Indian opposition circles, and circulated as gospel truth. However, this story was a
complete fabrication. The Swiss Bankers Association never published such a report. Anyone
claiming to have such figures (for India) should be forced to identify their source and explain
the methodology used to produce them."
[10][49]

In a separate study, Dev Kar of Global Financial Integrity concludes, "media reports
circulating in India that Indian nationals held around US$1.4 trillion in illicit external assets
are widely off the mark compared to the estimates found by his study." Kar claims the
amounts are significantly smaller, only about 1.5% of India's GDP on average per annum
basis, between 19482008. This includes corruption, bribery and kickbacks, criminal
activities, trade mispricing and efforts to shelter wealth by Indians from India's tax
authorities.
[43]

According to a third report, published in May 2012, Swiss National Bank estimates that the
total amount of deposits in all Swiss banks, at the end of 2010, by citizens of India were CHF
1.95 billion ( 92.95 billion, US$2.1 billion). The Swiss Ministry of External Affairs has
confirmed these figures upon request for information by the Indian Ministry of External
Affairs. This amount is about 700 fold less than the alleged $1.4 trillion in some media
reports.
[9]
The report also provided a comparison of the deposits held by Indians and by
citizens of other nations in Swiss banks. Total deposits held by citizens of India constitute
only 0.13 per cent of the total bank deposits of citizens of all countries. Further, the share of
Indians in the total bank deposits of citizens of all countries in Swiss banks has reduced from
0.29 per cent in 2006 to 0.13 per cent in 2010.
Business and Corruption
Public servants have very wide discretionary powers offering the opportunity to extort undue
payments from companies and ordinary citizens. The awarding of public contracts is
notoriously corrupt, especially at the state level. Scandals involving high-level politicians
have highlighted the payment of kickbacks in the healthcare, IT and military sectors. The
deterioration of the overall efficiency of the government, protection of property rights, ethics
and corruption as well as undue influence on government and judicial decisions has resulted
in a more difficult business environment.
[50]
Corruption has become a particularly significant
issue for India Inc. - the corporate sector in India - which fears that India's business
worthiness is eroded because of endemic corruption.
[51]

Judiciary
According to Transparency International
[unreliable source?]
, judicial corruption in India is
attributable to factors such as "delays in the disposal of cases, shortage of judges and
complex procedures, all of which are exacerbated by a preponderance of new laws".
[52]
Over
the year there have been numerous judge who have faced allegations of corruption, however
in 2011, Soumitra Sen, a former judge at the Kolkata High Court became the first judge in the
India to be impeached by the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Indian Parliament for
misappropriation of funds.
[53]

Armed forces
The Indian Armed Forces have witnessed corruption involving senior armed forces officers
from the Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force. A number of scandals in the 2000
2010 period damaged the military's reputation; such scandals included skimming of armed
forces money, re-selling of government property, and faking combat missions.
[54]

Anti-corruption efforts
Right to Information Act
Main article: Right to Information Act
According to a study published by the Government of India's RTI site, the Right to
Information Act (2005) and equivalent acts in the states, that require government officials to
provide information requested by citizens or face punitive action, computerisation of services
and various central and state government acts that established vigilance commissions have
considerably reduced corruption or at least have opened up avenues to redress
grievances.
[3][55]

However, people seeking information under RTI have been identified and harassed, attacked
or killed.
Anti-corruption laws in India
Public servants in India can be penalised for corruption under the
Indian Penal Code, 1860
Prosecution section of Income Tax Act,1961
The Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988
The Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988 to prohibit benami transactions.
Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002
India is also a signatory to the UN Convention against Corruption since 2005 (ratified 2011).
The Convention covers a wide range of acts of corruption and also proposes certain
preventive policies.
[56]

The Lokpal Bill, 2011 is a bill pending before the Rajya Sabha.
India's lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha voted to pass The Whistle Blowers
Protection Bill, 2011. The bill is now pending in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house.
[57]

At present there are no legal provisions to check graft in the private sector in India.
Government has proposed amendments in existing acts and certain new bills for checking
corruption in private sector.
Big-ticket corruption is mainly witnessed in the operations of large commercial or corporate
entities. In order to prevent bribery on supply side, it is proposed that key managerial
personnels of companies' and also the company shall be held liable for offering bribes to gain
undue benefits. The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 provides that the properties
of corrupt public servants shall be confiscated. However, the Government is considering
incorporating provisions for confiscation or forfeiture of the property of corrupt public
servant in the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 to make it more self-contained and
comprehensive.[58]
A committee headed by the Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), has been
constituted to examine ways to strengthen laws to curb generation of black money in India,
its illegal transfer abroad and its recovery. The Committee shall examine the existing legal
and administrative framework to deal with the menace of generation of black money through
illegal means including inter-alia the following: 1. Declaring wealth generated illegally as
national asset; 2. Enacting/amending laws to confiscate and recover such assets; and 3.
Providing for exemplary punishment against its perpetrators. (Source: 2013 EY report on
Bribery & Corruption)
In August 2013 The Companies Bill, 2012
[59]
neared passage. It will regulate fraud by
corporations and is intended to avoid the accounting scandals such as the Satyam scandal
which have plagued India.
[60]
It replaces The Companies Act, 1956 which has proven
outmoded in terms of handling 21st century problems.
[61]

Anti-corruption police and courts
The Directorate General of Income Tax Investigation, Central Vigilance Commission and
Central Bureau of Investigation all deal with anti-corruption initiatives. Certain states such as
Andhra Pradesh (Andhra Pradesh Anti-corruption Bureau) and Karnataka (Lokayukta) also
have their own anti-corruption agencies and courts.
[62][63]

Andhra Pradesh's Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) has launched a large scale investigation in
the "cash-for-bail" scam.
[64]
CBI court judge Talluri Pattabhirama Rao was arrested on 19
June 2012 for taking a bribe to grant bail to former Karnataka Minister Gali Janardhan
Reddy, who was allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
Investigation revealed that India Cements one of India's largest cement had been
investing in Reddy's businesses in return for government contracts.
[65]
A case has also been
opened against seven other individuals under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of
Corruption Act.
[64]

Civic anti-corruption organisations
A variety of organisations have been created in India to actively fight against corrupt
government and business practices. Notable organisations include:
Bharat Swabhiman Trust established by well-known Yog Guru Swami Ramdev running a large
campaign against black money and corruption since last 10 years.
5th Pillar is most known for the creation of the zero rupee note, a valueless note designed to
be given to corrupt officials when they request bribes.
India Against Corruption is a movement created by citizens from a variety of profession and
status to work against corruption in India. The movement gathered tremendous media
attention and came to the forefront in 2012. Prominent people associated with the
movement were Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi & Anna Hazare. In late 2012, Arvind Kejriwal
took the route to form a political party to fight corruption while Anna Hazare & Kiran Bedi
remain apolitical. The apolitical movement is currently headed by Anna Hazare while the
political party formed by Arvind Kejriwal & his followers is called Aam Aadmi Party .
[66]

Jaago Re! One Billion Votes is an organisation originally founded by Tata Tea and Janaagraha
to increase youth voter registration.
[67]
They have since expanded their work to include other
social issues, including corruption.
[68]

Association for Social Transparency, Rights and Action (ASTRA) is an NGO focused on grass-
roots work to fight corruption in Karnataka.
One organisation, the Lok Satta Movement, has transformed itself from a civil organisation to
a full-fledged political party, the Lok Satta Party. The party has fielded candidates in Andhra
Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Bangalore. In 2009, it obtained its first elected post, when
Jayaprakash Narayan won the election for the Kukatpally Assembly Constituency in Andhra
Pradesh.
Factors contributing to corruption in India
In a 2011 report on Corruption in India,
[11]
one of the world's largest audit and compliance
firms KPMG notes several causes that encourage corruption in India. The report suggests
high taxes and excessive regulation bureaucracy as a major cause. India has high marginal tax
rates and numerous regulatory bodies with the power to stop any citizen or business from
going about their daily affairs.
[11][69]

This power of Indian authorities to search and question individuals creates opportunities for
corrupt public officials to extract bribes - each individual or business decides if the effort
required in due process and the cost of delay is worth not paying the bribe demanded. In
cases of high taxes, paying off the corrupt official is cheaper than the tax. This, claims the
report, is one major cause of corruption in India and 150 other countries across the world. In
real estate industry, the high capital gains tax in India encourages large-scale corruption. The
correlation between high real estate taxes and corruption, claims the KPMG report, is high in
India as well as other countries including the developed economies; this correlation has been
true in modern times as well as for centuries of human history in numerous cultures.
[11][69]

The desire to pay lower taxes than those demanded by the state explains the demand side of
corruption. The net result is that the corrupt officials collect bribes, the government fails to
collect taxes for its own budget, and corruption grows. The report suggests regulatory
reforms, process simplification and lower taxes as means to increase tax receipts and reduce
causes of corruption.
[11][69]

In addition to tax rates and regulatory burden, the KPMG report claims corruption results
from opaque process and paperwork on the part of the government. Lack of transparency
allows room for maneuver for both the demanders and suppliers of corruption. Whenever
objective standards and transparent processes are missing, and subjective opinion driven
regulators and opaque/hidden processes are present, the conditions encourage
corruption.
[11][70]

Vito Tanzi in an International Monetary Fund study suggests that in India, like other
countries in the world, corruption is caused by excessive regulations and authorisation
requirements, complicated taxes and licensing systems, mandated spending programmes, lack
of competitive free markets, monopoly of certain goods and service providers by government
controlled institutions, bureaucracy, lack of penalties for corruption of public officials, and
lack of transparent laws and processes.
[12][71]
A Harvard University study finds these to be
some of the causes of corruption and underground economy in India.
[72]

Impact of corruption
Loss of credibility
A study on Bribery and Corruption in India conducted in 2013
[73]
by one the largest global
professional services firm Ernst & Young (EY), a majority of the survey respondents from
PE firms said that a company operating in a sector which is perceived as highly corrupt, may
lose ground when it comes to fair valuation of its business, as investors bargain hard and
factor in the cost of corruption at the time of transaction.
According to a report by KPMG, "high-level corruption and scams are now threatening to
derail the country's credibility and [its] economic boom".
[74]

Economic loss
Corruption may lead to further bureaucratic delay and inefficiency as corrupted bureaucrats
may introduce red tape in order to extort more bribes.
[75]
Such inadequacies in institutional
efficiency could affect growth indirectly by lowering the private marginal product of capital
and investment rate.
[76]
Levine and Renelt showed that investment rate is a robust determinant
of economic growth.
[77]
According to the neoclassical growth model, institutional variables
contribute to determining steady-state per capita income levels and speed of convergence to
its steady state, hence affecting its growth rate.
[78]

Bureaucratic inefficiency also affects growth directly, such as through misallocation of
investments in the economy.
[79]
Additionally, corruption results in lower economic growth for
a given level of income.
[76]

Lower corruption, higher growth rates
If corruption levels in India were reduced to levels in developed economies such as Singapore
or the United Kingdom, India's GDP growth rate could increase at a higher rate annually. C.
K. Prahalad estimates the lost opportunity caused by corruption, in terms of investment,
growth and jobs for India is over US$50 billion a year.
[1]
























Is the Indian middle class becoming an active agent of change?




The recent outcry of middle-class men and women, many of whom not associated with any
political party or developmental organisation, is an important phenomenon that deserves
careful attention. Prior to the Delhi rape case agitation, there was also significant middle-
class participation in the anti-corruption movement. Also the popularity of 'Satyamev Jayate'
is a pointer towards something new happening in India. Does this mean that the Indian
middle-class, the chief beneficiary of the liberalisation process, is dissatisfied with the way
things are in the country and are increasingly coming out of their closet and taking active
interest in the affairs of the country? Is activism on various issues becoming the norm rather
than exception? Or is this just a flash in the pan?
In the absence of any serious research on this issue, one can only make some tentative
conclusions. One thing is absolutely clear - the role of television is changing rapidly and
social network sites have become an important arena for public debates and expression of
viewpoints. It is clear that media is moving from a "reporter" to a "reporter-activist" model of
functioning. Development issues clearly have TRP and therefore we have dramatic live
coverage of protest movements and debates on TV are becoming less "debate" and more
"interrogation" of public figures. 'Satyamev Jayate' proved that a Sunday morning television
show on development issues can have huge TRP and can also generate donations for various
organisations. There are other popular TV shows like Crime Patrol which bring out cases of
violence against women and end with some lessons for the viewers. This phenomenon is not
restricted to national channels only but also can be seen in regional TV channels. Social
networking sites have opened the possibility for the ordinary citizen (as opposed to the expert
columnist) to express his/her viewpoints, share news items, and enter into active discussions.
This is a change from being a passive recipient of news and views via the newspaper and
occasionally writing "letters to the editor". Expressing views on various developmental issues
has become quite popular in the social network sites. The social network sites have also
become a space for various organisations and individuals to share news of their activities
which encourages others to do similar activities.
Increasing television coverage, social network sites, candle-light protests in the street are
perhaps solving one of problems that the middle class have felt since Independence - as
voters, the middle-class simply did not have the numbers to make a difference. Now the game
has changed. Not only the middle-class has grown in numbers but more importantly they can
now have an impact on the political class without having the numbers thanks to television
and social network sites.
There is another significant change if we take a relatively long-term view of things. During
the nationalist movement and during the days of the Naxalite movement of later 60s, a large
number of middle class youths were inspired by the idea of "sacrifice" and indeed some even
sacrificed their lives. I think that the new middle-class activist is no more into "sacrifice".
Hence, there is no more any contradiction between dressing up and going to a shopping mall
and also participating in an agitation or expressing one's discontent on social networks. In an
age of multiple identities, it is possible to shift from being a consumer of a MNC brand to an
agitator on the street within a few hours and go back home to watch the favourite mega-
serial.
This may look like "shallow" activism to a twentieth century person but this is the trend of
the new century. It is possible that the middle-class is finding agitation as much "fun" as
visiting a trendy coffee shop. The middle-class agitators love a little bit of glamour that
comes with television coverage of their activities and they like to post images of themselves
in street corner protests. It's the new cool thing.
Another aspect of this new phenomenon is perhaps that "ideological battles" have become
obsolete or at least less important than they were during the nationalist phase or the Naxalite
phase of middle-class agitation. This also makes the new agitations in India somewhat
different from the "Occupy Wall Street" type of clearly anti-capitalist movements in Europe
and America. While the financial meltdown in Europe and America has resulted in a new
interest in systemic thinking about capitalism and its negative effects, in India the new
activists are not "ideological" in nature but are into specific issues - corruption, rape, safety of
women, poor governance, education, so on and so forth. A section of the middle class is not
into agitation but is quietly contributing to various organisations working for the
disadvantaged. But they share a common trait - they are not interested in ideological debates
but are interested in specific issues like education, health, care for the elderly etc.
So neither Marx nor Gandhi nor Savarkar are attractive but good organisations doing specific
tangible programmes are attracting volunteers. Pratham's ASER Centre is an example. It will
be wrong to say that no one is interested in ideological texts but they are certainly less in
number than those who prefer to work on specific issues. Apart from volunteers, there are
also a large number of young people who are joining the development sector as professionals.
They like to work for the poor but also enjoy their i-pads.
Two elements of the new middle-class agitators make them a difficult category for the old
political class, left, centre or right. The first of course is that they are articulate and know how
to make an impression on television. The second, paradoxically, is that they are
unpredictable. Gone are the ideologically committed "I shall sacrifice my life" category of
youths. They were easier to predict.
It is no longer easy to predict on which issue the new agitators will flare up and which issue
will start snow-balling. Hence in their frustration, the less intelligent members of the old
political class end up saying that they are "dented and painted". One young female student of
Delhi University being interviewed on TV recently, during the anti-rape agitation, perhaps
summed up the new age mindset when she said "What's wrong if I try to look good during an
agitation?

Feb 20 2013: Corruption can be stopped almost in its entirety.
Is "almost" not good enough?
Most people are taught honesty of a sort but if one grows up in a world where they must
really fight for what they need, then honesty and morals become teaching a child how to get
what
they need to survive. That trumps honesty and morals. In fact, it would be dishonest and
immoral to oneself
to not get what one needs to survive. In fact, survival is not an immoral endeavor although
there are those who
wish to make it so and keep it that way because they hold most of the cards needed to win
over others.

Want to stop corruption? Get rid of the reasons for corruption. Get rid of the causes or
reasons for committing crimes.
It isn't human nature to be criminal, corrupt, greedy, selfish and the kinds of elements we see
in those who commit crimes.
Those are all different responses one can make and does make in the environment in which
they live and which they appraise as to whether or not it is a friendly, supportive environment
and will provide what they need to live.
If not, they will respond differently and how they respond is what is correct for them.
Let's eliminate the reasons for corruption.
People continually want "fair, just, honest, ethical" leaders which they will never get because
the system is a corrupt and unjust system, by default, and cannot be fixed, meaning it can not
be made just.
It has to be completely dismantled and a new and just system put into its place. If it has
reasons to be corrupt it has to go until a just one is figured out and implemented. If there are
no reasons to be dishonest, then there is no dishonesty because there is nothing to gain from
it. Corruption and its other features only happens when there is something to gain.


The reason and cause is money. Get rid of money.
If you can't think that way, or imagine that, then start thinking that way until you find
yourself finally crossing over and imagining a new world that is minus corruption. Build it.

Pabitra Mukhopadhyay 50+
+1

Feb 20 2013: Teaching the value of honesty at all circumstances to our children and
practicing it like a popular fashion.

Feyisayo Anjorin 100+
+1

Feb 20 2013: I think you mean reducing it.
Corruption can not be stopped.
One big step is working on our foundation; raising children in good home environments and
families where values and character are inculcated in them.

A free press is important. A truly free press; its amazing how a nation can take an illussion
for reality and a lot of mess gets covered because the media is controlled by a cabal.

The judicial system would have to be led by men and women of intergrity; unfortunately if
the nation is under the grip of immorality and depravity, then it would have its share of
crooks and thugs in suit as judges.
Random Chance 30+
0

Feb 23 2013: There is corruption, that is true.
It cannot be fixed or eliminated. That is probably true.
So what else is true, is eliminating the reasons for being corrupt.
That is true.
With no reasons, meaning no gain, most all corruption will be gone because
the "game is corruption", it is "based on corruption", and it cannot function
"without corruption".
But if the causes or reasons are gone, so too is corruption gone.
If you have a system that has no reasons for corruption, no gain from corruption and no
chance of being corrupted, then you have a just system and that is very, very achievable.
There will be no place for corruption to hide, to seed and grow and to gain power.
That is true.
It isn't in the hearts of humans to be corrupt.
It isn't in the genes of humans to be corrupt.
It isn't human nature to be corrupt.
Corruption is one response that is used most profusely, but only when there is a reason to
become corrupt.
In a just system (not the ones we currently have), corruption cannot exist.
That is what a just system is and humans act accordingly.
If that were not true, then they wouldn't act accordingly in a corrupt system (corruption)
which is to become corrupt for survival.