Comparing Pakistan and india is like comparing apples and oranges. india is in the same league as Congo. "World Bank"
World Bank's $1bn slap for India
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - In a stinging rebuke to India's ingrained corruption and inability to really deliver on its social and health missions, the World Bank (WB) has decided to withhold more than $1 billion aimed at health programs in the county due to allegations of fraud and misappropriation of funds.
India likes to project itself as a modern, rising economic powerhouse. But the World Bank's action places India on the same level with a motley group of rogue countries such as Bangladesh, Chad, the Congo, Kenya and Argentina that have suffered the same ignominy.
"The World Bank strongly believes that corruption and leakages are a major development issue, for they undermine the intended
outcomes for which public money is spent," said the agency. "The government of India shares this concern."
Funding has been frozen for the second national tuberculosis control project and the Karnataka health systems project, both elements of the Bank-backed reproductive and child health program. While the WB has launched a probe into various allegations of corruption in the procurement of pharmaceuticals, the Finance Ministry has urged states and federal departments to ensure complete "transparency and integrity" in awarding contracts.
The Indian Express quoted Finance Minister P Chidambaram as having told World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz: "We are on the same wavelength ... complete transparency and integrity in project implementation is imperative." Recently, the Finance Ministry evolved a Governance and Accountability Action Plan designed to strengthen governance, in keeping with the bank's wishes.
The allegations put a question mark on efforts by the government to ameliorate the negative effects of economic growth in the country through massive rural infrastructure, health and education spending. To this end, India has also been trying to rope in the bank to garner funds and expertise.
In August, the WB announced it would lend India $9 billion over three years for development projects in rural areas. Wolfowitz said the funds would be used to sustain the growth needed to lift 250 million people out of poverty. Over 260 million of India's 1.1 billion people live in abject poverty, despite economic growth of 6% per annum or more since free market reforms were initiated in 1991.
While New Delhi has other sources of funds (especially the growing kitty from a services tax) to meet the challenge of lifting up the poorest, the unhappiness expressed by the WB is symptomatic of New Delhi's extremely bad record in getting the money to those who need it.
The government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched a massive project of rural employment guarantees in August. It plans to spend more than $40 billion per year to be implemented at the behest of public servants across the country.
In detail, the government will provide a guaranteed wage of close to $1.5 per day to all rural households in 200 districts for a period of 100 days. Some 90% of the expenditures will be borne by the federal government, the remainder by the states. New Delhi also announced an urban renewal scheme in December that provides for disbursing funds to upgrade the infrastructure of 63 selected cities. Over $12 billion has been earmarked for the project and will be disbursed over seven years.
Unfortunately, the implementation of such programs is invariably tardy and creates a huge constituency of corrupt petty bureaucrats. There have been various attempts to put a figure on the dimensions of Indian corruption. By some accounts, the government loses $50 billion due to tax evasion; $10 billion due to delay in projects due to bureaucratic red tape; and $7 billion to various forms of outright corruption each a year.
Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi famously said that for every rupee spent by the government for development less than a tenth of the amount actually reaches the supposed beneficiary. Sadly, this is probably not an exaggerated figure.
Studies by the Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) and other indices such as the Corruption Perception Index have consistently ranked India as one of the world's most corrupt countries. In last year's TI report, India secured a lowly spot at number 88 (out of 159 countries surveyed) of the most corrupt places on the planet, along side Gabon, Mali, Moldova, Tanzania and Iran.
The World Bank has labeled the Delhi Development Authority that oversees urban housing and commercial property in the national capital as the most corrupt organization in India. A Planning Commission study has revealed that less than 50% of food grains meant for people living below the poverty line actually reached them. Such pilferage amounted to almost a billion dollars.
One cruel consequence of social and economic inequity has been a vicious Naxalite and Maoist rebellion throughout the Indian heartland. While the world tends to focus on terrorism in Indian Kashmir, and to a lesser degree, strife in the northeastern states and other parts of India, a bloodier battle is being waged in the hinterlands of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Orissa. In many places the Maoists and Naxalites rule with the gun. Although there are several causes for the Naxalite violence, one of the main reasons has been the absence of land reform and the persistence of extreme poverty.
The Maoists feed on the cadres of tribals and dalits (considered to be of the lower castes) who have been dispossessed of their lands. They also exploit the alienation that many people feel about indifferent state governments. Although the police and landlords remain the two biggest targets of the Maoists, the communist rebels recently captured a train with more 250 passengers in a remote part of Jharkhand.
In February, Maoists attacked a truck convoy in Chhattisgarh, killing 24 people and injuring 32. In one of the biggest attacks staged in November, over 1,000 rebels meticulously planned and then executed the release of 350 of their comrades lodged in the Jehanabad jail in Bihar.
A study by the Home Ministry says murders of police personnel by guerrillas jumped 53% to 153 in the past year, while 516 civilians were killed, an 11% increase on the previous year. In the early 1990s, the number of districts affected by Maoist violence stood at just 15 in four states. It has now risen to 170 districts out of a total of 602 in the country.
The government has tried to shine more light on aid transactions by enacting the Right to Information Act that enables greater public scrutiny of projects and programs. However, as is apparent by the bank's rap, a lot more needs to be done.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HD06Df04.html
World Bank's $1bn slap for India
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - In a stinging rebuke to India's ingrained corruption and inability to really deliver on its social and health missions, the World Bank (WB) has decided to withhold more than $1 billion aimed at health programs in the county due to allegations of fraud and misappropriation of funds.
India likes to project itself as a modern, rising economic powerhouse. But the World Bank's action places India on the same level with a motley group of rogue countries such as Bangladesh, Chad, the Congo, Kenya and Argentina that have suffered the same ignominy.
"The World Bank strongly believes that corruption and leakages are a major development issue, for they undermine the intended
outcomes for which public money is spent," said the agency. "The government of India shares this concern."
Funding has been frozen for the second national tuberculosis control project and the Karnataka health systems project, both elements of the Bank-backed reproductive and child health program. While the WB has launched a probe into various allegations of corruption in the procurement of pharmaceuticals, the Finance Ministry has urged states and federal departments to ensure complete "transparency and integrity" in awarding contracts.
The Indian Express quoted Finance Minister P Chidambaram as having told World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz: "We are on the same wavelength ... complete transparency and integrity in project implementation is imperative." Recently, the Finance Ministry evolved a Governance and Accountability Action Plan designed to strengthen governance, in keeping with the bank's wishes.
The allegations put a question mark on efforts by the government to ameliorate the negative effects of economic growth in the country through massive rural infrastructure, health and education spending. To this end, India has also been trying to rope in the bank to garner funds and expertise.
In August, the WB announced it would lend India $9 billion over three years for development projects in rural areas. Wolfowitz said the funds would be used to sustain the growth needed to lift 250 million people out of poverty. Over 260 million of India's 1.1 billion people live in abject poverty, despite economic growth of 6% per annum or more since free market reforms were initiated in 1991.
While New Delhi has other sources of funds (especially the growing kitty from a services tax) to meet the challenge of lifting up the poorest, the unhappiness expressed by the WB is symptomatic of New Delhi's extremely bad record in getting the money to those who need it.
The government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched a massive project of rural employment guarantees in August. It plans to spend more than $40 billion per year to be implemented at the behest of public servants across the country.
In detail, the government will provide a guaranteed wage of close to $1.5 per day to all rural households in 200 districts for a period of 100 days. Some 90% of the expenditures will be borne by the federal government, the remainder by the states. New Delhi also announced an urban renewal scheme in December that provides for disbursing funds to upgrade the infrastructure of 63 selected cities. Over $12 billion has been earmarked for the project and will be disbursed over seven years.
Unfortunately, the implementation of such programs is invariably tardy and creates a huge constituency of corrupt petty bureaucrats. There have been various attempts to put a figure on the dimensions of Indian corruption. By some accounts, the government loses $50 billion due to tax evasion; $10 billion due to delay in projects due to bureaucratic red tape; and $7 billion to various forms of outright corruption each a year.
Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi famously said that for every rupee spent by the government for development less than a tenth of the amount actually reaches the supposed beneficiary. Sadly, this is probably not an exaggerated figure.
Studies by the Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) and other indices such as the Corruption Perception Index have consistently ranked India as one of the world's most corrupt countries. In last year's TI report, India secured a lowly spot at number 88 (out of 159 countries surveyed) of the most corrupt places on the planet, along side Gabon, Mali, Moldova, Tanzania and Iran.
The World Bank has labeled the Delhi Development Authority that oversees urban housing and commercial property in the national capital as the most corrupt organization in India. A Planning Commission study has revealed that less than 50% of food grains meant for people living below the poverty line actually reached them. Such pilferage amounted to almost a billion dollars.
One cruel consequence of social and economic inequity has been a vicious Naxalite and Maoist rebellion throughout the Indian heartland. While the world tends to focus on terrorism in Indian Kashmir, and to a lesser degree, strife in the northeastern states and other parts of India, a bloodier battle is being waged in the hinterlands of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Orissa. In many places the Maoists and Naxalites rule with the gun. Although there are several causes for the Naxalite violence, one of the main reasons has been the absence of land reform and the persistence of extreme poverty.
The Maoists feed on the cadres of tribals and dalits (considered to be of the lower castes) who have been dispossessed of their lands. They also exploit the alienation that many people feel about indifferent state governments. Although the police and landlords remain the two biggest targets of the Maoists, the communist rebels recently captured a train with more 250 passengers in a remote part of Jharkhand.
In February, Maoists attacked a truck convoy in Chhattisgarh, killing 24 people and injuring 32. In one of the biggest attacks staged in November, over 1,000 rebels meticulously planned and then executed the release of 350 of their comrades lodged in the Jehanabad jail in Bihar.
A study by the Home Ministry says murders of police personnel by guerrillas jumped 53% to 153 in the past year, while 516 civilians were killed, an 11% increase on the previous year. In the early 1990s, the number of districts affected by Maoist violence stood at just 15 in four states. It has now risen to 170 districts out of a total of 602 in the country.
The government has tried to shine more light on aid transactions by enacting the Right to Information Act that enables greater public scrutiny of projects and programs. However, as is apparent by the bank's rap, a lot more needs to be done.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HD06Df04.html
