Scania Scandal: Need to step up to the challenge

The allegations of bribe-fuelled bus contracts have to be investigated by state govts. However, BCCL is a central public-sector unit and the central govt can directly order a CBI investigation

The Scania bribery expose threatens to knock the bottom out of the Indian claim of having improved the ease of doing business in the country. Henrik Henriksson, chief executive officer of Scania, has claimed: "We invested heavily, went in with a bang and really wanted to succeed in India, but we underestimated the risks" – suggesting that nothing works without greasing palms.
 
Scania, which had earlier hoped that "India will, in the next three to five years, be among the top markets" for its buses, has shut shop in the country. Its Rs 300-crore production facility at Narsapur in