corruption-in-india.md

Corruption is something so vile yet not rare in India. It affects us all in one way or another from the standpoint of either economy or politics. Corruption is like a plague spreading and threatening whatever it touches. It isn't different than treating an actual plague-infected individual, except it is on a much larger scale. However, we have failed as a democracy to address corruption over the years. The numbers speak for themselves. Notably, according to a report in 2005 held by transparency international, over 62% of Indians confirmed that they had to bribe a public official at some point to get something done or enjoy services provided by them (them being public officials). In 2019, the Corruption Perceptions Index ranked us at 40-49% and in 2021, we were at 85 out of 180 in the CPI grading. Let it be millions stashed in the Swiss Bank or corrupt government officials keeping black money as hidden stashes; Corruption has many forms. The causes of corruption in India primarily consist of excessive regulations, complicated tax and licensing systems, numerous government departments with opaque bureaucracy and discretionary powers, monopoly of government-controlled institutions on certain goods and services delivery, and the lack of transparent laws and processes. The Corruption problem has implications for protecting the "Rule of Law" and ensuring access to justice. As of December 2009, 120 of India's 542 parliament members have accusations of partaking in corruption-related crimes like bribing under India's "First Information Report" procedure wherein anyone can allege another to have committed a crime. Many of the biggest scandals since 2010 have involved high-level government officials, including Cabinet Ministers and Chief Ministers, such as the 2010 Commonwealth Games Scam (₹70,000 crores (US$8.8 billion)), the Adarsh Housing Society Scam, the Coal Mining Scam (₹1.86 lakh crore (US$23 billion)), the Mining Scandal in Karnataka and the Cash for Vote scams. In 2019, an online petition exposed the ineffectiveness of the country's top anti-corruption authority, Lokpal, which is supposed to stop corruption in the country. The petition addressed to the Chairperson of Lokpal asserts that the Lokpal officials are squandering enormous amounts of public money without accountability. The online petition urges the Lokpal bureaucrats that if they are not able to perform, they must resign from their positions. As of August 7, 2022, more than 23,000 people had signed the petition available on the Change.org website. A 2005 study held by Transparency International in India found that more than 92% of the people had firsthand experience paying bribes or peddling influence to get services performed in a public office. Taxes and bribes are fairly frequent between state borders. Transparency International estimates truckers annually pay ₹222 crores (US$28 million) in bribes. The above mentioned are simple examples of how corrupt our country is while it can influence others. However, as the saying goes: "Everything in life is balanced, albeit good or evil."; We have people doing good work to prevent corruption too. For example, The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research got flagged by Reddy Prashant in May 2012 for becoming a ritualistic, overly-bureaucratic organisation. But in the end, we as a democracy need to tackle it (corruption); while spreading awareness as a society.