Crime, Corruption and Economic Growth — A Study in Indian Perspective

Corruption has existed in every country in some form of the other since time immemorial and India has been no exception. But until the Second World War (1939–1945), corruption in India was confined within a few departments like police, roads and so on, but the huge amount of money pumped into the war efforts changed the entire scenario and corruption became widespread in all government sectors. On the recommendation of the Santhanam committee, formed under the noted educationist and parliamentarian Professor Santhanam, the government of India set up five-fold Anti-corruption machineries during the early 60s to fight corruption in Public life, but it appears that there is a huge gap between anti-corruption policies and practice. Although India has been achieving record growth reaching almost 9% during the last few years, its position in the Global Corruption Index is rather low. During 2008, it slipped further to a rank of 85. An estimated amount of Rs. 21,000 crores is lost every year just from petty corruption. The fight against corruption has been declared a high priority by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and some recent measures including RTI Act, 2005 and WHISTLEBLOWER Resolution have been adopted in recent years.India has a decentralized Federal system in which state governments possess broad regulatory powers. Several reports indicate important regional variations in the level and impact of corruption. In this study, we have attempted to study these regional variations by studying action taken by various anti-corruption agencies vis-à-vis the economic indicators in those states. We have also conducted a representative sample survey to study public perception of corruption in India and suggested measures to combat it effectively. An analysis of the sample survey has been made to understand the impact of corruption in those states.