Why India Has Failed to Curb Corruption

In 2023, India slipped 17 ranks below China on the corruption index. While every political party likes to claim that it has sharply reduced corruption, this assessment of India’s position has raised many questions. 

Since 2012, when the movement against corruption began, this issue has been front and centre in conversations around governance. Why then has corruption not reduced as we had hoped? How is it that some of our neighbouring countries like China, Bhutan, Singapore and Malaysia seem to be far more successful in handling this problem?

Corruption around the world

All developing societies suffer from this malady, including developed economies. Many railroad projects in the US were riddled with corruption. Corruption was also widespread among the US police during the prohibition era. 

In the 1970s, Hong Kong had had a system of ‘tea money’ bribes which implied that for all basic services – from shifting of telephones to ensuring availability of fire fighters when there was a blaze – officials had to be bribed. 

In Japan, massive sums of money were paid to secure contracts for the Lockhead planes which finally resulted in the arrest of then Prime Minister Kaki Tanaka, accompanied by a four-year jail term. 

Allegations of corruption against German defense minister and prince Bernhard of the Netherlands resulted in a huge setback to their political careers. Since then, many of these countries have brought safeguards to make their society cleaner.

Also read: Inarguably, the Most Corrupt Regime Ever

How is corruption measured?

To understand the extent of corruption prevalent in different countries, it is essential to look at the method used internationally for this purpose. While there is no standard measure of corruption, two sources publish data to indicate prevalence of corruption in different countries – the Transparency International (TI) and the World Bank (as part of its governance index).

The Transparency International uses nearly 15 sources to assess the level of corruption in different countries. The lower a country’s rank, the lower the level of corruption prevalent there. TI also measures the prevalence of corruption through an index. Newer countries are added every year to make the database more comprehensive. 

In 2023, India ranked 93rd on a list of 180 countries. In 2018 it ranked 85th and prior to that 79 (2016) in the world ranking. This continuous deterioration indicates that either corruption has increasing over the last few years or other countries are making their system cleaner while we lag behind. 

State of affairs in India

China is said to have widespread corruption in its society. In 2014, China ranked 100 which improved to 76 in 2023. In a similar period India has gone down by 8 points. Even the comparative score of China has improved by 6 points compared to India’s one. The neighbouring countries of Singapore and Malaysia have always done well. The World Bank governance index indicates a similar picture. 

It ranks countries on control of corruption index according to percentile rank with 0 being the lowest and 100 highest..Ch na showed a percentile rank of 45.7 in 2014 which improved to 54.2 in 2023.As against that India increased marginally down during the same period from 39.9 to 41.5. Not only is corruption in India not declining, we’re also doing worse than China in controlling it.

 The failure to control corruption is worrisome from another perspective. In 2012-13, there was an extensive movement against corruption. Powerful leaders with mass appeal worked on it and asked for a change in political regime to make the system cleaner. I recall a special session of parliament which discussed setting up of the Lokpal. It was felt that along with Lokayukta, this would be able to improve the situation. This has not happened. The Lokpal is rarely talked about these days and except for the Lokayukta of Karnataka, none of the others seem to have made a significant impact on controlling corruption.

A 2005 study by TI on corruption in India in different departments revealed that the highest level of corruption was in the police, revenue, lower judiciary, education and engineering departments. 

The per capita income is now nearly 3.5 times that of 2005. There have been massive raids by the Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation and Income Tax department, to unearth black money. This was accompanied by extensive use of technology in all areas of governance. Internet penetration in India too crossed the 50% mark, with about 115 crore mobile connections, and almost universal coverage of families with bank accounts.

Also read: How the Union Govt Is Slowly but Surely Blurring India’s Federal Structure

With these and other measures, the quality of public services has improved in many areas. The availability of passport service, refund of income tax, availability of revenue records and many services at the grassroots are now available with far greater ease. Distribution of food grains or other items through the public distribution system is now far cleaner than before. With opening of accounts on large scale transfer of money to beneficiaries under various schemes has far lower chances of corruption. While technology has been introduced in the police and judiciary, complaints of corruption persist.

As the economy is expanding, large infrastructure projects on construction of highways, power plants, modernisation of airports, deepening and expansion of seaports and massive housing and urbanization projects are being taken up. Sectors involved in many of the areas are regulated and require clearance from regulatory authorities. These create opportunities for large scale corruption.  

Why we have failed to curb corruption

First, a huge amount of money is being spent on elections. Political parties try to gain financial resources wherever they are in power. For the private sector to give money to politicians, a quid pro quo is required – contracts for large projects or policies that benefit them substantially.

According to the Centre of Media Studies, Rs 50,000 crore was spent by all political parties and candidates in fighting the 2019 Lok Sabha election. In 2024, their estimate rose to Rs 1 lakh crore. Even if we consider all the money from electoral bonds and some by candidates, it is credible that illegal contributions, by those winning government contracts, were made.  

Second, the variety of consumer goods has expanded phenomenally in the last two decades. Air conditioners and mobiles are not a luxury but a necessity for many families. There is a strong incentive for petty public officials to resort to corrupt means to extract money from the common public and meet some of these needs. Also, while  average incomes, it is the rich who have benefited hugely with increased share in assets. The per capita income of the bottom 50% of our population has not increased. They cannot pay large bribes. You cannot extract juice from a dry lemon. So the officials also focus on contracts and projects where there is larger bribe paying capacity and possibly lower risk of getting caught.

Third, the growth process requires large private investment. The regulatory authorities have increased in number and coverage of sectors. The functionaries of these authorities, as well as politicians, see an opportunity to make money for themselves. 

While we cannot eliminate corruption, some measures are urgently needed to make our society cleaner. The electoral process must be simplified so that there is a drastic reduction in the requirement of funds for contesting elections. The functioning of the regulatory authorities needs to be reviewed to make it easy for projects to be set up. Similarly, transparency in awarding contracts needs to be improved and constantly reviewed.