Indian Babus - Worst in Asia
HONG KONG based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy has rated India as having the worst bureaucracy in Asia. Singapore has the best babu in Asia followed by Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan and Japan. Indonesia, Philippines and China are close to India with incompetent babus.
The Survey concluded that:
1. India's inefficient bureaucracy was largely responsible for most of the complaints that business executive have about the country.
2.The complaints included inadequate infrastructure and corruption, where officials were willing to accept under-the- table payments and companies were tempted to pay to overcome bureaucratic inertia and gain government favours.
3.Onerous and fickle tax, environmental and other regulations make business in India "so frustrating and expensive”.
4. Dealing with court system in India is an unattractive option for companies, and would best be avoided.
5. The bureaucrats are rarely held accountable for wrong decisions and it would be extremely difficult to challenge them. This gives them (bureaucrats) terrific powers and could be one of the main reasons why average Indians as well as existing and would-be foreign investors perceive India's bureaucrats negatively.
This is a cartoon by Gopal, a retired IAS Officer who is quite familiar to DDT readers.
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