Last week, at a private discussion on governance, a very senior functionary of the government, who holds ministerial rank in the Planning Commission, said that the main problem of governance was corruption because out of every Rs 100 allocated for investment, only about Rs 8 was actually invested.
The rest was siphoned off. He also said that at the district level, every district magistrate he had met said that if they managed to spend even only half on development, they considered themselves deserving of at least a Padma Shri.
Corruption is not new in India. It was, in fact, a part of the wages of the agents of the state in Mughal times (and before as well). It used to be called mamool or customary payment. It was not, as it has become now, speed money.
In that sense, it was no different from the way wages for waiters in the US are determined
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