India records highest rate of bribery in Asia

According to a survey released by Global Civil Society Transparency International, India has the highest rate of bribery and use of personal links to access public services such as healthcare and education in Asia.

While the overall bribery rate stood at 39 per cent, the rate of citizens using personal connections stood at a whopping 46 per cent. Following India are Indonesia and China respectively that have the highest rates of people using personal connections.

While bribery and corruption are not uncommon especially when it comes to bureaucratic processes, the recent survey is once again a reminder of the fact that a precise regulatory framework is the need of the hour.

In most cases, it is because of the slow and complicated bureaucratic processes that people lean on to such unethical solutions like bribery and leveraging personal links. This is why it is crucial for the national and state governments to streamline all the administrative processes to curb these practices.

The report also suggests investing in user-friendly online platforms to deliver essential public services quickly and effectively. With that said, technology can undoubtedly be used as a powerful tool to root out the underlying fraudulent practices within the system. This is because the more in-person transactions there are between citizens and government personnel, higher are the chances of briberies and corruption.

In their bid to cut red tape by digitizing their administrative processes, the government authorities across Latin America and Caribbean have been automating their services. Thus, it is high time that the Indian government authorities also aggressively undertake the initiative of digitizing all government services.

In addition to this, reporting of corruption is also crucial to curb its spread across the society. However, as many as 63% of the people in India are more concerned about its retaliation that refrains them from reporting such unethical practices.