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Government to make payments directly to Bank Accounts to curb corruption!

Arun Prabhudesai — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 06:28:55 +0000

I am sure you are well aware that, in India, to get any work done from any government department is a nightmare. In most cases you have to bribe every person in the chain – From peon to the top boss. This is especially true if you are contractor or agency or a supplier working for a Government department. You will never get paid for the work you have done unless you pay the bribe.

However, going forward these harassed souls may breathe a little easy. Ministry of Finance has amended the rules to enable all the Ministries and Departments to facilitate payments by direct credit to the bank accounts of the payees.

Controller General of Accounts(CGA) have released a notification that, with effect from 1st April 2012, all payments above Rs. 25,000 to suppliers, contractors, grantee and loanee institutions shall be directly credited to their bank accounts.

This will definitely help put brakes on corruption to a certain extent which is happening in Government offices, especially where payment to contractors and suppliers is concerned.

The CGA notification also states that – All government servants shall continue to have the option to receive their salaries by cash or cheques, they could also opt to receive their salaries by direct credit to their bank accounts. However, all other payments to government servants of the amount of above Rs.25,000 shall be credited directly to their bank accounts. Further, all payments towards the settlement of retirement / terminal benefits of the government servants shall also be directly credited to their bank accounts.

The payments will be made using “Government e-payment gateway” which was recently setup by Controller General of Accounts(CGA) to facilitate payments in government departments.

All in all, a great step forward by Finance Ministry of India which is sure to bring down amount of corruption taking place in government departments

Bangalore is the most bribed city in India [Report]

Arun Prabhudesai — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:26:25 +0000

According to statistics released by iPaidabribe.com, Bangalore comes out on top as the most bribed city in India. This is quite a surprising statistic, as one may have thought it would be either of the two metros, Delhi or Mumbai, who would witness maximum amount of corruption!

iPaidabribe.com, is an initiative by Janagraha, encourages Indians to disclose the bribes they pay to anyone. One of the reasons why the finding may be skewed is because it is prepared based on the what people from various cities have disclosed on the website. Bangalore being an IT hub, maximum number of people have made entries from that city and hence the number 1 position. Bangaloreans are at the forefront when it comes to paying bribe to evade a challan for illegal parking; On an average, Bangaloreans pay Rs 378 as bribe to evade an illegal parking ticket. Delhi came second with Rs 350.

Although, the city statistic may be skewed, the report has some interesting finding about the Government departments that lead in taking bribes – Police is by far the most bribed department. Over Rs. 3 Crore of bribes were accepted by Police officials in 5705 instances. Police department was followed by registrations, Municipal Corporations & Vehicle as the next 3 departments who accepted maximum bribes.

You can check out the entire interactive report by ipadabribe.com . Also, if you have paid a bribe, do not hesitate to send a sms or go to their website to disclose the same.

Here is a question to readers, which city do you think is the most bribed city in India – My vote would go to Delhi, what about you?

How could Flipkart respond to the open letter to its founder by a dissatisfied customer!

Arun Prabhudesai — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:08:24 +0000

[Arun’s Note: One of our readers - Mr. Mukesh Gupta - has framed a wonderful post in response to an open letter written to Sachin Bansal, CEO/Founder, Flipkart.com, that we featured few days back. I think Sachin Bansal should definitely take a note of this… I am producing the post verbatim as it has appeared on his blog.]

Today, I came across an open letter written to Sachin Bansal, CEO/Founder, Flipkart.com. In this letter, the writer (Sushrut Bidwai) talks about his experience of trying to get his laptop replaced by Flipkart. He also talks about the attitude of the service staff and how they left him feeling frustrated (repeatedly).

This open letter has also induced responses from other customers of flipkart to come in the open and admit that they also had similar experiences when it came to refunds or replacements.

Now, flipkart has the following options:

Pretend that nothing happened and continue business as usual.
Take notice of the service failure, take corrective actions to ensure that this is fixed at the earliest. Then continue business-as-usual.
Put corrective measures in place, reach out to Sushrut and sort out his matter. Also, reach out to the others who have indicated that they went through a similar experience and sort their matter as well.

These steps can address the issue at hand. However, can Flipkart manage to use this incidence, turn it on its head into a great PR activity for itself? I think it can. The question is how? If I were in Sachin’s place, I would write an open response to this letter as below:

Dear Sushrut

First things first. I am really sorry for the harassment caused to you in your transaction with flipkart. I also know that no matter what I say or do, your 40 days of productive time will never be recovered. As a fellow entrepreneur, I understand what a difference such a time frame can have on a business.

However, I also wanted to thank you for taking the time and writing such a long and detailed letter to me. I want to let you know that I personally take responsibility for the actions of my employees and apologize to you for the bad treatment that you have received from Flipkart.

Just so that you know, your open letter has had the following effects on flipkart:

We have identified the reasons for this service breakdown and have put in place processes and policies to ensure that such an incident never happens again with any other customer. Thanks to you, the service levels at Flipkart will go up a couple of notches which will be appreciated by our future customers.

I would like to invite you to my office so that I can explain how we have ensured that such an experience never happens with any other customer.

Also, I would request you to address our employees on your distress during this period. I hope that this will make our employees more aware, conscious and inspire them to provide better service to our customers.

As a token of gratitude & appreciation (for having taken the time, put in the effort to bring this to our notice and helping all our future customers), I would like to offer to you one book, free of cost, delivered to your home every month, for the next 5 years. You can pick the books and we will deliver it. I know that this can not in anyway bring back the time you lost due to the issue, but hope that you will benefit from the knowledge you gain from the books.

I would also like to take this opportunity and request all our customers to continually engage with us and continue to provide us your valuable feedback. We would like you to believe that delighting you at every interaction is our only objective. Anything short of that is not expected. So, if you think, we are slipping, please provide a helping hand and let me know. I will be ever grateful to you for this help. You can reach me at (his email ID).

Looking forward to meeting Sushrut and delighting all our other customers.

Your’s

Sachin Bansal

Note: This is my way to respond to such a situation. Let’s see what action Sachin takes (or ignores).

Would love to hear what readers think about this…

Top 10 Trends India witnessed in 2011!

Kaushambi — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:44:11 +0000

2011 witnessed quite a few new trends in 2011 – Anti-corruption trend was the biggest which shook the whole country. The ruling congress government did not expect the Jan Lokpal to assume such gigantic proportions. The Anna Hazare movement against corruption was sort of the tipping point which woke up the whole nation. For sporting fanatics it was India’s debut at hosting Formula One Championships in the country that made the whole country proud.

Trending: Anti-Corruption Movement [Jan Lokpal Bill]

The anti-corruption movement gained strong momentum in India in 2011. Anna Hazare began his hunger strike in April 2011 and has not looked back since then. The leader has received support from the masses that have become more aware of what they should expect from a government. Corruption is now becoming a no-no for modern India.

Trending: Fierce Internet User Growth in India

No longer will anyone appear clueless when you talk about the internet in India. A study by the Internet and Mobile Association of India revealed that India has crossed 100 million internet user landmark and is expected to jump to 121 million by December 2011. To give you all an idea of the massive proportions of this number, the total population of Australia is about 22.8 million! The Indian citizen is slowly becoming a netizen and internet has now become a household word.

What’s more, the pace of growth is expected to remain for next few coming years – even with 100 million internet users, India still has a internet user density of less than 10%

Trending: Mobile number portability

The telecom sector in India was set to witness a new trend in the mobile sector when PM Manmohan Singh launched Mobile Number Portability in India. This new trend allowed Indian mobile users to change their service providers for a fee of less than Rs. 19, without having to lose their numbers.

Trending: E-commerce in India

Online insurance, online shopping, banking, payments, online tickets, online business models and many other forms of virtual transactions are trending in India. A report from the Internet and Mobile Association of India pegged a growth of 47%, bringing the total value of e-commerce in India to an estimated Rs. 47,000 crore in 2011. That’s not surprising because Indian buyers are now turning to established websites like Flipkart.com, Naaptol.com, eBay.in and many other shopping portals for their online shopping needs.

Trending: Rise of the young entrepreneurs

The 21^st century Indian youth have taken a leap forward and have started setting up shop even before they finish studying. Apart from the IITians and graduates from the IIMs, students from non-metropolitan and middle class background are giving entrepreneurship a chance. One important reason is also that as a whole our Indian society is changing and is becoming more conducive to entrepreneurship!

Trending: India debuts in the Grand Prix

A sport which was in the pipeline for India to host from many years finally made its debut in the Buddh International Circuit on 30^th October 2011. Airtel was the primary sponsor and the race was held in Greater Noida, with a track of approximately 5 kms laid out in the Jaypee Green Sports City.

Jaypee group did a phenomenal job of not only completing the Formula One track on time, but also executed the entire race flawlessly making Indians really proud!

Trending: Laptops and tablets

With the introduction of Aakash by MHRD, the Rs. 1,750 tablet in October 2011, the tech savvy India is suddenly moving from bulky desktops to tablet PCs and laptops. This trend of moving to smaller devices is not only being seen amongst the urban rich but also in the middle class and semi-urban areas. People using such handheld devices in trains and buses is no longer a rare sight now-a-days.

Trending: Small cars in India

The Indian population has suddenly taken a liking to small cars, and why not! With petrol prices going through the roof, small cars in India have regained popularity. Hyundai recorded a growth of more than 25% in sales for November 2011, only driven by its small car mainstay – the i10 at 29% of total sales and the new Eon at 21% of total sales for November 2011.

And with middle class too buying cars in big numbers, India is set to become the 3rd largest light vehicle market in the world by 2020!

Trending: Twitter & Facebook Growth in India

The entire nation kept track and was updated by the Bachchan clan about Aishwarya’s pregnancy via Twitter. It was June 21 when Sr. Bachchan tweeted that he was going to become a grandparent. Amitabh Bachchan’s twitter page received more than 2,800 messages in less than half an hour. Indians have taken Twitter and the art of tweeting very seriously in 2011 and almost all celebrities and notable personalities have a Twitter page to keep their fans updated. Airtel, one of the largest Telecom services providers in the country has even offered free Twitter services to its subscribers until March 2012!

Along with Twitter, Facebook’s popularity in India has also been stellar to say the least. No one remembers Orkut anymore – its Facebook all the way! In first of this year alone, over 11 million Indians joined the Facebook Bandwagon!

Trending: Hollywood comes to Bollywood

With Shahrukh Khan roping in Akon for ‘Chammak Challo’, Shakira and Lady Gaga giving live performances, Parish Hilton launching her line of purses and bags and Tom cruise arriving in India on Anil Kapoor’s invitation to promote MI:2, there’s no looking back. Gone are the days of Indians aspiring to go to Hollywood. It’s Jai Ho all the way!

Did we miss any? Let us know

India ‘most improved’ in Bribery index 2011 !

Viral Dholakia — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:43:00 +0000

Would you believe that the anti-bribery stance is already catching pace in India this year? Yes, the positive Anna-effect is gradually spreading its wings across the country, with India featuring as the ‘most improved’ country in 2011 bribery index.

While Chinese (27^th rank) and Russians (28^th) have emerged as most likely to pay bribes while operating abroad; the latest data from Transparency International’s Bribe Payers Index (BPI) 2011 indicates that India’s score improved the most amongst the index of 28 leading export countries and territories to bribe abroad.

“India’s score improved the most, with an increase of 0.7, but it still remains near the bottom of the corruption list. Canada and the United Kingdom saw the most significant deterioration in their scores with a drop of -0.3,” read the report that calculates foreign bribery and captures perceptions of bribery across business sectors.

In 2011, India notched 19^th rank with a score of 7.5, as against a score of 6.8 in 2008 Bribe Payers Index, which sums up to a remarkable improvement of 0.7 points over the last count. Interestingly, the index includes scores and ranks of all the G20 countries.

Amongst other major economies, this year’s top rankers Netherlands and Switzerland, with the score of 8.8, just about managed to pip BPI 2008 toppers Belgium (8.7) and Canada (8.5) by a marginal difference.

The survey draws attention to foreign bribery carried out by companies, which needs to be tackled by the government by having regulatory environment and effective anti-corruption system in place for their countries.

Bribe Payers Index & Corruption Perceptions Index

The index underscores the link between a government’s fight against corruption at home and foreign bribery by its companies by measuring levels of perceived corruption in the public sector. The report urges the governments to participate in the anti-corruption drive by ratifying key international anti-bribery conventions.

Further, the survey findings revealed the likelihood of bribes being paid by companies in 19 different sectors, which was more or less common across all the sectors. Agriculture, Light manufacturing and Civilian aerospace are perceived as least bribery-prone sectors; whereas Public works contracts, Oil and gas, Utilities and Real estate sectors ranked at the bottom of the bribery index.

However, in India, we need a strong government resolve to fight corruption rather than corporate awareness regarding the same.

3 things everyone can do about corruption!

Srini — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 06:46:00 +0000

Why is corruption such a big deal?

India’s GDP is growing at 7-9% per annum, and presumably will continue to blaze along for some time. So, why fret about corruption when things are looking rosy? What are we complaining about? Don’t we have more important things to do than (Jan) Lokpal bill? We’ve been mired in corruption for 50 out of 65 years. What’s another few years? Is it even possible to fix it? Can this Pavlovian reflex that causes the reaching out of hands under tables and behind closed doors into another man’s pocket be cured?

Beyond the moral aspect, there are tangible and economic reasons as to why corruption belongs at the top of the list of issues India has to confront now.

The Numbers

India’s GDP in 2010*

Based on real exchange rate: $1.5 Trillion (Rank 12^th in the world)
Based on purchasing power parity: $4 Trillion and change (Rank 5^th in the world)
Growth rate: 8.3% (Rank: 7^th in the world)

According to these key metrics, we’ve done well. In fact, outstandingly well. So, why bother?

Why we should care

In the world of economics, capitalism and free markets, the past only evokes admiration and an occasional eulogy. The future is everything. The question that will be in front of us over the coming decade: How long can we keep this up? The answer lies in how we fix our problems. And if we do not fix the fixable, the future will be easy to predict. And, it won’t look pretty.

There are many reasons to care about corruption:

1. It’s a tax and it destroys morale. Corruption introduces enormous inefficiencies. It raises the cost of living for all except the corrupt. It’s demoralizes the talented and hardworking amongst us.

2. Will growth slow corruption or corruption slow growth? The answer is yes to both. If we don’t kill corruption, we won’t be able to grow. If we don’t grow, we won’t be able to kill corruption.

3. Perception is bigger than reality: We are no longer a sheltered economy living in our own shadows. We are on the global stage. We have to assure our potential partners that we are serious and that they will be treated fairly. It is a mark of leadership. A corrupt nation cannot be a world leader.

3 things everyone can do in this journey

1. Take a side

It doesn’t really matter which side. If you don’t like Anna, go find someone else who’s worthy of your support. Whatever you do, you cannot stay silent. Dialogue is the life blood of a democracy. As good citizens of this country, we owe it our voices.

2. Say No to incompetency

It is said that power corrupts. It‘s perhaps important to realize that incompetency too corrupts. Power corrupts the few, while incompetency corrupts the many. Those unwilling to subject themselves to the tough realities of merit and hard work, resort to corruption. Insist on a job well done, especially if you’ve had to pay them for it!

3. Try the “rupee for rupee matching contribution” experiment

Indira Gandhi once supposedly remarked, “Corruption is a global phenomenon” as a way to explain corruption away. We’ve glorified such leaders. These chickens have been roosting for decades, and it will take effort and time to root them out. While you fight the good fight, how can you tell if your efforts are paying off?

Try this: For every rupee you pay as “bribe”, pay yourself a matching rupee. Consider this your corruption provident fund. The size of this fund over time will give you an idea if we’re winning or losing. It’s easy to do. Worst case, you’ll have money to buy a few drinks and drown your sorrows if things take a little longer.

[Data Source]

Now, Bihar Wants To Fight Corruption With YouTube!!

Ankit Agarwal — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:08:15 +0000

Anti-corruption seems to be the flavor of season. Notwithstanding the ongoing proceedings, lets divert our attention a little towards a rather interesting anti-corruption tool that the Bihar government wants to use for taming corruption - Youtube.

The idea in itself does not have a novelty factor per se. In plain speak, what Bihar Rural Development Minister Nitish Mishra wants to do is,

Use Youtube as a tool to expose the corrupt officials who resort to taking bribes. The authorities intend to make these videos available for public on Youtube and expose the bribe hungry people abusing their powers

The minister wants to initiate the process by targeting the officials extracting bribes from Indira Awas Yojana (IAY).

The setup will involve setting up of 3 counters in every camp where the IAY beneficiaries will be encouraged to lodge their complaints against the officials who have tried to extract bribe from them. These complaints will then be recorded as videos and release for public viewing at large. Obviously, the intention is that public shame will lead to officials reducing their heinous acts of accepting bribes.

I think the initiative (atleast the thought process) works better than bugging these camps with spy cams or anything. If the officials manning these complaint counters are transparent and don’t have a nexus with IAY officials, they can actually do a good job at crowdsourcing the identification of corrupt officials.

But again, I am not sure how many beneficiaries will think of lodging complaints given the fact that the official might end up further delaying whatever monetary benefits the beneficiary stands to receive. In the end, it will depend on how isolated the IAY officials and the officials managing the complaint lodging – youtubing are from each other.

There is this slight possibility of gaming the system if some official is falsely accused of accepting bribes but guess, the rewards are worth taking this much of risk.

What are your thoughts on this initiative of using Youtube by a government body in Bihar? Does it stand a chance to curb corruption and reduce bribery in government offices?

Indian Billionaires & need of the hour…

guest — Tue, 24 May 2011 06:55:15 +0000

Ratan Tata, the scion and one of the most successful and worthy chairmen of Tata Group was in the news again. This time it was not his calls to Niira Radia or his letter to A Raja but it was his comment on the extravagant lifestyle of Mukesh Ambani, his 27 floors of residence, Antilla, his private airliner and so on.

The precise comment was

“It’s sad Mukesh lives in such opulence ……India needs people to allocate some of their enormous wealth to finding ways of mitigating the hardship that people have”.

That got me thinking and soon I was in deep web of frustration that gave me a headache just because of all the questions and no answers. How much is too much? With personal wealth in billions of dollars what have these businessmen given back to their own country which has made them billionaires? Best business practices probably!

Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet donated almost half of their wealth to charity how much has Mukesh Ambani donated? Or how much has Ratan Tata himself Donated? The two biggest business houses in India have been acquiring companies, expanding business, multiplying the wealth. To sum it up they have grown multifold in last two decades since Indian economy has been liberated. The very obvious answer is number of jobs they opened up but will they have created organizations without giving out jobs? I guess plenty of jobs are only the by-product.

I am not against their lifestyle. They have all the right to spend money whichever way they wish, after all they have earned it. But the recent case of 2G scam hurts me as an Indian. How easy it is for people with lots of money to influence the whole system. There have been accusations, trials and even detention, but has it changed the way business works? How many organizations that were awarded telecom licenses have retained those? Most of the companies are either sitting pretty with the licenses or have sold majority stake to a multinational.

Himachal Futuristic (HFCL) that sold its license to Bharti, is almost non-existent today whereas Airtel is India’s biggest Telecom operator. Wrong example probably but where is the Telecom regulatory authority of India, what’s the role they have played? Don’t we need to change the rules for the betterment of our country? When we have examples why can’t we make case studies out of it?

I think, I digressed from the topic but more than giving back to nation isn’t it about what we do, we do it ethically and yes keep in mind the common good for all the people. Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, Kumar Manglam Birla, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Shiv Nadar, Azim Premzi, Vijay Mallaya, Narayan Murthy and all the honchos need not give a penny back to India or Indians. What they need is to ensure that the best business practices are implemented ethically across all deals that take place. If corporate lobby acts ethically and responsibly we would not be deploying resources to locate the Swiss bank funds for billions of dollars.

Isn’t it a very small thing to give back to your country?

[This post has been written & contributed by our regular reader Prashant Mishra]

Is Lokpal bill enough?

Satyam Gambhir — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 08:26:39 +0000

Thanks to Anna Hazare’s initiative and supporters of ‘India Against Corruption’ that today Government has agreed to ponder over existing written laws against corruption. However, is this sufficient to change for better? [Click here for Salient features of Jan Lokpal]

I feel, the Jan Lokpal Bill is surely necessary but not a sufficient condition to fight corruption. Currently, even if a person is convicted for corruption, there is no provision to recover the losses or the money the person made through corrupt means. Also politicians, take advantage of such a baseless anti-corruption system, and never get arrested for their deeds. Politics and corruption has become synonymous – which is a zero-risk, high-profit business in our country.

There are a lot of complications in the making of the Lokpal Bill and also in its implementation. Who would determine who is most credible and most appropriate if all the organs of the state are being run by suspects themselves?

Under the present anti-corruption systems in our country, there is no agency which is independent of the government control and therefore, has the powers to independently investigate and prosecute the guilty.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has the powers, but not independent. The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has independence, but no powers.

These agencies are ineffective and hope that Lokpal bill doesn’t form yet another similar agency. In short, there are enough loopholes in the laws to keep these anticorruption agencies ineffective. Similar would be the fate of Lokpal movement unless it has power and independence at the same time.

According to the proposed Jan Lokpal Bill, the investigations into the cases have to be completed in two years so that the guilty is punished in a time bound manner. However, the bill is limited to being time bound, but recommends nothing about the punishment or how to recover the siphoned funds.

Ordinary people always face demands for bribe to get their work done. The Lokpal will ensure justice for such and punishment for those who harass them. The proposed Bill has to ensure the selection process of the Lokpal and its functioning remains totally transparent.

But, then Lokpal alone is not going to be the magic cure for corruption. I am afraid this whole idea of having a Lokpal as a supreme authority even above the Supreme Court and over Parliament that can bring under its purview anyone, even the Prime Minister, runs the risk of jeopardizing governance rather than making it impartial and effective.

What is your take ?