ReleaseWire Connect

UP elections have always been intriguing and most of the times for the wrong reasons. This is one state where political leaders have always been riddled with controversies, be it from criminalized and caste-based politics, to corruption and scams. But this year, controversy seems to have taken a new shape. With the rise of a young and dynamic leader in UP, the scenario here would change soon. Against expectations, Samajwadi Party (SP) suddenly came out and swept the elections. This sweeping victory cannot be credited to anyone else other than Akhilesh Yadav – a young politician who never projected himself as the Chief Minister, even after the victory. But then, SP read the minds and hearts of the electorate and decided to make Akhilesh the CM. And thus a new star was born in Uttar Pradesh!

Indian defence has always been looked up to with lot of dignity and honour. But then, this image of our defence being epitome of discipline and bereft of any vices, is under siege following series of scams and corruption scandals. The scams that subverted the image of our defence ranges from Bofors to operation West End to Adarsh Society scandal. Recently, more than five defence procurement companies were banned from doing business in India, after they were alleged with corruption charges.

The frauds in the insurance are nothing new but what is new is the alarming rate at which it has been growing over the past few years. The frauds range from clients’ registration through reinsurance to claims – which at times have been engineered by causing intentional loss of insured assets. The bottom line is that these frauds cost the insurance companies more than otherwise.

Subsidies have always been the most-touted strategy among the political class, especially as it is something that is highly deceptive, completely opaque and totally off -target. This trump card is extensively used by political parties, during both elections and budget to gain mileage. Perceptibly, this policy, which was fundamentally aimed at bridging the socio-economic divide of the society, has increasingly become a tool for politicians to swing electorate towards them. But then there is no secret in the fact that only a fraction of these subsidies does actually reach the poor, thanks to our corrupt system.

Fraudulent accounts and loans against property are not just mere imagination of script writers but actually a widely practiced scam in India. Small and discreet nexus of bank officials and corporate (and individuals) play hand in gloves when it comes to banking frauds. Lately, banking loans discrepancies (especially in the real estate sector) have been creating flutters in India’s financial market involving a number of public sector banks and other financial institutions.

The recent case of Indian traders being kidnapped in China has opened up a can of worms. Apart from the case revealing weaknesses in the Chinese judiciary (as I had highlighted in an editorial a few weeks back), it has also brought out in the open something that traders from India (and other countries) were facing for a long time but not speaking about openly. The big trade that happens between India and China is through the scores of wholesalers operating out of wholesale markets in India like the Sadar Bazaar in Delhi. These are not the big guys who prefer getting into litigation that easily; they also aren’t amongst those who operate with lawyers and bigger paraphernalia. These are smaller traders, though huge in numbers, who go to Chinese towns like Yiwu in particular and pick one or two containers of goods worth Rs. 30 lakh to a crore once every quarter. And they now fear entering China. The question is why? Can one incident of kidnapping shake up an entire community of traders, especially when China is such a good bargain for them? Or was this not that stray an incident after all?

India’s tryst with democracy might remain a tryst only. Not only the three pillars of democracy stand abused but even the fundamental setup of democracy is being tweaked as per convenience. There has been no year when elections in India have been fair, thus elevating a party to power who is most of the time not the first-choice of the masses.

Almost every socio-economic parameter of our country poses a classical comparative dichotomy. Where more than 70 per cent of country’s population struggles to earn $2 a day, we have more than 3,500 million pieces of 500 rupees notes and more than 1,000 million of 1000 rupees currencies floating in the economy as of now! A report by the Reserve Bank of India stated that out of the total currency in circulation in March 2010, 500 and 1,000 notes constituted 76.5 per cent (increased from 69.5 per cent in a year’s time). And it is not just about the number of higher denomination notes floating in the market but more about the very transaction of the same. Undoubtedly, these notes are more used for high-value cash transaction and not by millions of poor Indians who barely get to manage their daily needs.

There is no denial to the fact that corruption has mired almost all levels of our society. Today, it has become an undetachable part of the Indian social system. Unlike other social malaises, the impact of corruption increases as one moves down the social ladder. This is evident from the gory picture of our rural heartland that speaks volumes about endemic corruption which hinders its well being. Every year several development projects, worth billions of rupees are rolled-down. But as always a huge fraction of these allocations are siphoned away by a chain of village and block officials.

Corruption in healthcare has multifarious social implications