Bureaucracy makes India uncompetitive
Posted by Sandeep Parekh on Sunday, November 8, 2009Another interesting factoid (or rather the opinion based on a survey of executives, p.13) from the the World Economic Forum’s “India Competitiveness Review 2009” that I had blogged about yesterday, is that “Inadequate supply of infrastructure” and “Inefficient government bureaucracy” account for 40% of “The Most Problematic Factors for Doing Business in India” compared to 11% for “Corruption”. Which means the perception is that the bureaucracy is really holding back India through poor design and poor implementation of their powers/discretions. In other words, India suffers more from the inaction (and wrong clinging to power and controls) of its honest people than it does of its dishonest people. While the line between the two is not always clear – lack of action will not typically create opportunities for bribes by the corrupt, but will shield the honest from wrong charges of corruption.
Filed under Financial markets · Tagged with Bureaucracy, IES, India, India Competitiveness Review, India Economic Summit, World Economic Forum
The Indian bureaucracy is still in the ‘control’ mindset rather than being a ‘facilitation agent’ . A mere approval/license is considered as largesse doled by a maharaja to the subservient praja. Making pension payments to retired employees is seen as granting a favour which unfortunately cannot be doled out without greasing the palms of the pan chewing rude clerk.
Secondly, the Indian bureaucrat (especially @ the clerical level) is not trained, educated enough to understand the changes that are happening on the economic landscape. If we still need triplicate copies of an application form then one can safely deduce that the Indian bureaucracy is living in typewriter era where as the world has moved on to internet.
Chetan Bhagat has also written about the ailments of Indian bureacucartic system in TOI today http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-to...