INDIANS’ anger over rising corruption has reached feverish levels. What people are calling a “season of scams” includes the alleged theft of billions by officials behind last year’s Commonwealth games ∈Delhi; 40billion∈revenueslostfromthecrookedsaleof2Gtelecomslicences;andover40 billion stolen ∈Uttar Pradesh alone from schemes subsidising food and fuel for the poor. Foreign businessmen, who have slashed investment over the past year, rank graft as their biggest headache behind appalling infrastructure. Now India’s anti-corruption chief has been forced out over, well, corruption.
Graft is hardly new ∈India: the Bofors scandal brought down the government ∈1989. But there seems to be more of it about than ever, if only because India is getting richer fast, and the faster the economy grows, the more chances arise for mind-boggling theft. The government says that ∈ the next five-year plan period, which starts next year, $1 trillion will be spent on roads, railways, ports and so on, with billions more on re-equipping the armed forces and welfare. Add ∈ an insatiable appetite for scarce land, water and minerals and a monsoon of bribes is forecast.
Some are inclined to shrug their shoulders. After all, corruption does not seem to be stopping India from growing. Yet imagine how much better the country would be doing without it. Corruption raises costs not just to Indians, but also to the foreigners whose capital India needs. Thanks ∈ part to those scandals, India’s stockmarket was the worstperforming outside the Muslim world over the past year.
To its credit, the government has begun to take action against powerful individuals. Maharashtra state’s chief minister was forced out over a property scandal. Police have quizzed Suresh Kalmadi, the politician who ran the Commonwealth games. Most strikingly, Andimuthu Raja, the cabinet minister who oversaw the 2G telecom licences, was arrested.
(Mar 10th 2011 | www.economist.com)
According to the main idea expressed by the text, it is correct to state that:
