India and corruption

The current situation in India, popular protests against corruption led by Anna Hazare, has set me thinking.

I think, particularly in a country as diverse and large as India, inclusive growth requires inclusive democracy. The wide spread protest against corruption have shown that India has an appetite for participatory democracy, and given the sheer size and scale of the Indian state ‘people power’ might be necessary to keep it in check.

If nothing else this incident has shown once again how important tackling corruption is to a country’s development, Moody’s the ratings agency says that ‘cases of corruption and the recent scandals have impaired business environment in India’. Tackling this is important before it has an impact on India’s ability to attract international business and investment and further damages the countries reputation as a safe place to do business.