Corruption in India is a cultural aspect.

Indians seem to think nothing peculiar about corruption .

It is everywhere.

Indians tolerate corrupt individuals rather than correct them.

No race can be congenitally corrupt.

But can a race be corrupted by its culture?

To know why Indians are corrupt ,

look at their patterns and practices .

First:

Religion is transactional in India . Indians give God cash and anticipate an out-of-turn reward.

Such a plea acknowledges that favours are needed for the undeserving.

In the world outside the temple walls,

such a transaction is named- “bribe”.

A wealthy Indian gives not cash to temples,

but gold crowns and such baubles.

His gifts can not feed the poor. His pay-off is for God. He thinks it will be wasted if it goes to a needy man.

In June 2009, The Hindu published a report of Karnataka minister G. Janardhan Reddy gifting a crown of gold and diamonds worth

Rs 45 crore to Tirupati.

India’s temples collect so much that

they don’t know what to do with it.

Billions are gathering dust in temple vaults.

When Europeans came to India they built schools. When Indians go to Europe & USA, they build temples.

Indians believe that if God accepts money for their favours, then nothing is wrong in doing the same thing. This is why Indians are so easily corruptible.

Indian culture accommodates such transactions morally.

There is no real stigma. An utterly corrupt Jaya Lalita can make a comeback, just unthinkable in the West.

Second -

Indian moral ambiguity towards corruption is visible in its history.

Indian history tells of the capture of cities and kingdoms after guards were paid off to open the gates, and commanders paid off to surrender.

This is unique to India .

Indians’ corrupt nature has meant limited warfare on the subcontinent. It is striking how little Indians have actually fought compared to ancient Greece and modern Europe .

The Turks’ battles with Nadir Shah were vicious and fought to the finish.

In India fighting wasn’t needed, bribing was enough to see off armies.

Any invader willing to spend cash could brush aside India ’s kings, no matter how many tens of thousands soldiers were in their infantry.

Little resistance was given by the Indians at the “ Battle ” of Plassey.

Clive paid off Mir Jaffar and all of Bengal folded to an army of 3,000.

There was always a financial exchange to taking Indian forts. Golconda was captured in 1687 after the secret back door was left open.

Mughals vanquished Marathas and Rajputs with nothing but bribes.

The Raja of Srinagar gave up Dara Shikoh’s son Sulaiman to Aurangzeb after receiving a bribe.

There are many cases where Indians participated

on a large scale in treason due to bribery.

Question is: Why Indians have a transactional culture while

other ‘civilized’ nations don’t?

Third -

Indians do not believe in the theory that they all can rise if each of them behaves morally, because that is not the message of their faith.

Their caste system separates them.

They don’t believe that all men are equal.

This resulted in their division and migration to other religions .

Many Hindus started their own faith like Sikh, Jain, Buddha and many converted to Christianity and Islam.

The result is that Indians don’t trust one another .

There are no Indians in India ,there are

Hindus ,Christians, Muslims and what not.

Indians forget that 400 years ago they all belonged to one faith.

This division evolved an unhealthy culture.

The inequality has resulted in a corrupt society,

In India every one is thus against everyone else, except God ­ and even he must be bribed.

Reflections on India By Sean Paul Kelley

Sean Paul Kelley is a travel writer, former radio host, and before that an asset manager for a Wall Street investment bank that is still (barely) alive. He recently left a fantastic job in Singapore working for Solar Winds, a software company based out of Austin to travel around the world for a year (or two). He founded The Agonist, in 2002, which is still considered the top international affairs, culture and news destination for progressives. He is also the Global Correspondent for The Young Turks, on satellite radio and Air America .

The government is notoriously uninterested in the problems of the commoners, too busy fleecing the rich, or trying to get rich themselves in some way shape or form. Take the trash for example, civil rubbish collection authorities are too busy taking kickbacks from the wealthy to keep their areas clean that they don’t have the time, manpower, money or interest in doing their job.

Rural hospitals are perennially understaffed as doctors pocket the fees the government pays them, never show up at the rural hospitals and practice in the cities instead.
I could go on for quite some time about my perception of India and its problems, but in all seriousness, I don’t think anyone in India really cares. And that, to me, is the biggest problem. India is too conservative a society to want to change in any way.

Mumbai, India ’s financial capital is about as filthy, polluted and poor as the worst city imaginable in Vietnam , or Indonesia –and being more polluted than Medan , in Sumatra is no easy task. The biggest rats I have ever seen were in Medan !

One would expect a certain amount of, yes, I am going to use this word, backwardness, in a country that hasn’t produced so many Nobel Laureates, nuclear physicists, eminent economists and entrepreneurs. But India has all these things and what have they brought back to India with them? Nothing.

The rich still have their servants, the lower castes are still there to do the dirty work and so the country remains in stasis. It’s a shame. Indians and India have many wonderful things to offer the world, but I’m far from sanguine that India will amount to much in my lifetime.

Now, have at it, call me a cultural imperialist, a spoiled child of the West and all that.  But remember, I’ve been there. I’ve done it. And I’ve seen 50 other countries on this planet and none, not even Ethiopia , have as long and gargantuan a laundry list of problems as India does.

And the bottom line is, I don’t think India really cares. Too complacent and too conservative.

Read for whatever its worth, cos as the writer says, I dont think we care (enough to change it). The collapse of our civil society has been the biggest loss. I’m sure that the Prime Minister sees all this filth all over the country, while being drived around in his motorcade.

Puja Mehta

This entire FIR seems to be glued together with the sworn testimony of the witness Mr. Meharban Singh Sodhi. Now who is this Meharban Singh Sodhi? Is he even Meherban Singh Sodhi or is he actually a Mr. Resham Singh Bains, who happens to be a british national, currently residing at 85 Kailash Hills, New Delhi. We don’t really know whether his real name is Meherban Singh Sodhi or Resham Singh Bains. Hence, how can such a witness have any kind of credibility when he happens to be a person of least amount of credibility?

Whatever the person’s real name is, the fact is, that he last landed in India on a british passport (number 301674642, issued on June 30, 2002) issued in the name of Mr. Reshm SIngh Bains. Mr. Bains (or Mr. Sodhi) resides at the above mentioned address and also happens to posses an Indian passport. The pictures on both the passports are a perfect likeness of the same person.

The fact of the matter is, that Meherban SIngh/Resham Singh is a career criminal and has committed multiple frauds in India and in several other countries. He has been travelling on a the above passport, in which has has stolen the identity of legitimate british national, who may or may not even be currently alive. Resham Singh Bains is currently wanted in the U.K., by the Fraud Office of the U.K. Government.

Another criminal Mr. Davinder Sharma, alais Garner who happens to be a well know underworld character, surprisingly accompanied the Ghazibad Police to Goa, in oder to arrest the 78 year old Mr. Chopra. They even made sure that Mr. Chopra’s dramatic arrest was captured on camera and video and the major news media was promptly informed of the arrest. Davinder Sharma was seen on tv, accompanying the Ghazibad Police at the secene of Mr. Chopra’s arrest and subsequently, in the Goa court, where Mr. Chopra was brought. What Ghaziabad Police failed to investigate was that the Chopra family had filed a lawsuit against Davinder Sharma in December 2008, for extortion and harrassment. Mr. Chopra’s arrest was a retaliatory act by Devendra Sharma, to get even with the Chopra for having filed the lawsuit against them. The actual complainant Atindra Jain never ever met with any member of the Chopra family and hence, there was no question of him ever having loaned any money to them.

A very important fact to be noted here is that Resham Singh was an employee of Gurvinder Chopra in in London, U.K. and was subsequently brought to India to work for him over there, as his driver. It was then, that that Gurvinder Chopra found out that Resham SIngh’s real name is not Rashm Singh Bains, but is Meharban Singh Sodhi and that Meharban Singh stole the identity of one Mr. Resham Singh Bains in the U.K. and obtained a passport in his name, but with his own picture. At that point, Gurvinder Chopra dismissed Meharban Singh. Further, Gurvinder Chopra found out that Meharban Singh had stolen several of his belongings, including the check book mentioned in the Atinder Jain, F.I.R.. Somewhere along, Maherban Singh got in touch with Davinder Sharma (who happened to be an adverary of Gurvinder Chopra) and colluded with him plan this entire F.I.R. Atindra Jain is merely a decoy of Davinder Sharma and he never ever met with any member of the Chopra family.

Davinder Sharma bribed several officials and members of the Ghaziabad Police, in order to achieve his agenda. In reply to the Chopra family’s extortion case against Davinder Sharma, he gave a sworn statement to the Delhi Police Crime Brand Division in Sunlight Colony that he had given Rs. 60 crores to the Chopra family, in cash, as a loan. The Chopra family denied those allegations, but Davinder Sharma never got arrested against the Chopra family’s complaint. Since he is a well-known underworld operator, the police would never touch him, due the the power and the connections that he has. He several charges pending agianst him in the Crime Branch Speciall Cell at the Sunlight Colony Police Station, in New Delhi. Those charges include murder, extortion and criminal conspiracy. It is very strange that when Davinder Sharma claimed in his statement with the police that he loaned the alleged amount of Rs. 60 crore in cash to the Chopra family, they never tried to find out where Davinder Sharma got such a huge amount of cash from. Rs. 60 crore is an extremely large sum of money, especially in cash form. He should have been investigated by the Income Tax Department, to reveal the sources of such huge sum of money and whether or not, has has paid any income taxes against that money.

Mumbai police officers stand on a roughly made watchtower near the Gateway of India monument on New Year’s Eve, 2008

Disrepair of Police Forces and Lack of Accountability Contribute to Rights Violations

The Indian government should take major steps to overhaul a policing system that facilitates and even encourages human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. For decades, successive governments have failed to deliver on promises to hold the police accountable for abuses and to build professional, rights-respecting police forces.

The 118-page report, “Broken System: Dysfunction, Abuse and Impunity in the Indian Police,” documents a range of human rights violations committed by police, including arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and extrajudicial killings. The report is based on interviews with more than 80 police officers of varying ranks, 60 victims of police abuses, and numerous discussions with experts and civil society activists. It documents the failings of state police forces that operate outside the law, lack sufficient ethical and professional standards, are overstretched and outmatched by criminal elements, and unable to cope with increasing demands and public expectations. Field research was conducted in 19 police stations in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, and the capital, Delhi.

“India is modernizing rapidly, but the police continue to use their old methods: abuse and threats,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “It’s time for the government to stop talking about reform and fix the system.”

A fruit vendor in Varanasi described how police tortured him to extract confessions to multiple, unrelated false charges:

“[M]y hands and legs were tied; a wooden stick was passed through my legs. They started beating me badly on the legs with lathis (batons) and kicking me. They were saying, ‘You must name all the members of the 13-person gang.’ They beat me until I was crying and shouting for help. When I was almost fainting, they stopped the beating. A constable said, ‘With this kind of a beating, a ghost would run away. Why won’t you tell me what I want to know?’ Then they turned me upside down… They poured water from a plastic jug into my mouth and nose, and I fainted.”

Read additional accounts from victims of police abuse.

Several police officers admitted to Human Rights Watch that they routinely committed abuses. One officer said that he had been ordered to commit an “encounter killing,” as the practice of taking into custody and extra-judicially executing an individual is commonly known. “I am looking for my target,” the officer said. “I will eliminate him. … I fear being put in jail, but if I don’t do it, I’ll lose my position.”

Almost every police officer interviewed by Human Rights Watch was aware of the boundaries of the law, but many believed that unlawful methods, including illegal detention and torture, were necessary tactics of crime investigation and law enforcement.

The Indian government elected in May has promised to pursue police reforms actively. Human Rights Watch said that a critical step is to ensure that police officers who commit human rights violations, regardless of rank, will face appropriate punishment.

“Police who commit or order torture and other abuses need to be treated as the criminals they are,” said Adams. “There shouldn’t be one standard for police who violate the law and another for average citizens.”

Human Rights Watch also said that while not excusing abuses, abysmal conditions for police officers contribute to violations. Low-ranking officers often work in difficult conditions. They are required to be on-call 24 hours a day, every day. Instead of shifts, many work long hours, sometimes living in tents or filthy barracks at the police station. Many are separated from their families for long stretches of time. They often lack necessary equipment, including vehicles, mobile phones, investigative tools and even paper on which to record complaints and make notes.

Police officers told Human Rights Watch that they used “short-cuts” to cope with overwhelming workloads and insufficient resources. For instance, they described how they or others cut caseloads by refusing to register crime complaints. Many officers described facing unrealistic pressure from their superiors to solve cases quickly. Receiving little or no encouragement to collect forensic evidence and witness statements, tactics considered time-consuming, they instead held suspects illegally and coerced them to confess, frequently using torture and ill-treatment.

“Conditions and incentives for police officers need to change,” Adams said. “Officers should not be put into a position where they think they have to turn to abuse to meet superiors’ demands, or obey orders to abuse. Instead they should be given the resources, training, equipment, and encouragement to act professionally and ethically.”

“Broken System” also documents the particular vulnerability to police abuse of traditionally marginalized groups in India. They include the poor, women, Dalits (so-called “untouchables”), and religious and sexual minorities. Police often fail to investigate crimes against them because of discrimination, the victims’ inability to pay bribes, or their lack of social status or political connections. Members of these groups are also more vulnerable to arbitrary arrest and torture, especially meted out by police as punishment for alleged crimes.

Colonial-era police laws enable state and local politicians to interfere routinely in police operations, sometimes directing police officers to drop investigations against people with political connections, including known criminals, and to harass or file false charges against political opponents. These practices corrode public confidence.

In 2006, a landmark Supreme Court judgment mandated reform of police laws. But the central government and most state governments have either significantly or completely failed to implement the court’s order, suggesting that officials have yet to accept the urgency of comprehensive police reform, including the need to hold police accountable for human rights violations.

“India’s status as the world’s largest democracy is undermined by a police force that thinks it is above the law,” said Adams. “It’s a vicious cycle. Indians avoid contact with the police out of fear. So crimes go unreported and unpunished, and the police can’t get the cooperation they need from the public to prevent and solve crimes.”

“Broken System” sets out detailed recommendations for police reform drawn from studies by government commissions, former Indian police, and Indian groups. Among the major recommendations are:

• Require the police to read suspects their rights upon arrest or any detention, which will increase institutional acceptance of these safeguards;
• Exclude from court any evidence police obtain by using torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment in suspect interrogations;
• Bolster independent investigations into complaints of police abuse and misconduct through national and state human rights commissions and police complaints authorities; and
• Improve training and equipment, including strengthening the crime-investigation curriculum at police academies, training low-ranking officers to assist in crime investigations, and providing basic forensic equipment to every police officer.

Selected Accounts from ‘Broken System’

“She was kept in the police station all night. In the morning, when we went to meet her, they said she had killed herself. They showed us her body, where she was hanging from a tree inside the police station. The branch was so low, it is impossible that she hanged herself from it. Her feet were clean, although there was wet mud all around and she would have walked through it to reach the tree. It is obvious that the police killed her and then pretended she had committed suicide.”

- Brother-in-law of Gita Pasi, describing her death in police custody in Uttar Pradesh in August 2006

“We have no time to think, no time to sleep. I tell my men that a victim will only come to the police station because we can give him justice, so we should not beat him with a stick. But often the men are tired and irritable and mistakes take place.”

- Gangaram Azad, a sub-inspector who heads a rural police station in Uttar Pradesh state

“They say, ‘investigate within 24 hours,’ but they never care about how I will do [that]; what are the resources. … There is use of force in sensational cases because we are not equipped with scientific methods. What remains with us? A sense of panic surrounds our mind that if we don’t come to a conclusion we will be suspended or face punishment. We are bound to fulfill the case, we must cover the facts in any way.”

- Subinspector working near Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

“Often, it is our superiors who ask us to do wrong things. It is hard for us to resist. I remember, one time, my officer had asked me to beat up someone. I said that the man would be refused bail and would rot in jail and that was enough punishment. But that made my officer angry.”

- Constable in Uttar Pradesh

“With all the mental stress, the 24-hour law-and-order duty, the political pressure, a person may turn to violence. How much can a person take? … We have to keep watch on an accused person, their human rights, but what about us? Living like this 24 hours. We are not claiming that our power makes us born to work all the times. Sometimes we beat or detain illegally, because our working conditions, our facilities are bad. So we are contributing to creating criminals, militants.”

- Inspector in charge of a police station in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh

Satyam Computer Services Limited was nationalized in January 2009 after its executive Chairman, Ramalinga Raju, confessed to overstating profits. It later emerged that more than $1.5 billion was illegally transferred from Satyam to Raju’s personally owned firms; these included a property firm, Maytas Infra Ltd as per copyright, that owned a $3 billion contract to build the Hyderabad Metro Rail system.

It appears clear that Satyam Computer Services Limited’s independent directors did not fulfill their duties. For instance, at a board meeting on December 16, 2008, to vote on a resolution to approve the acquisition of the Rajus’ property firm by Satyam Computer Services Limited at short notice, none of the independent directors questioned why only that firm was being considered for acquisition rather than any of the other property firms in the market (given the depressed state of the property market at the time, this should have been an obvious question). All the directors voted for the resolution.

The collapse of Satyam Computer Services Limited, India’s fourth-largest IT firm, shocked its clients (whose list included 185 of the Fortune 500 companies) and industry generally. It also challenged the usefulness of two pillars of Indian corporate governance laws – that listed firms employ an independent auditor and that the board should have a majority of independent directors.¹ It also raised questions about corporate governance and corruption generally in India, the scope and effectiveness of the laws on corporate governance, the scope and endemism of corporate corruption, the causes, and underlying trends.

Corruption in India is neither new nor limited in scope. India ranks 85th among the 180 countries in a recent study by Transparency International on political corruption.² The World Bank ranks India in the 25th to 50th percentile on the ability to control corruption.³

Economic corruption in India arose due to state controls of production through licenses and quotas. To gain access to licenses, corporations paid bribes. To gain access to goods and services in short supply, the public paid bribes. Thus, in the public mind, corruption, slow growth, inefficiency, and poor quality became inextricably linked.

A second source of corruption was the misuse of state power. The state has misused power in various ways. These include overstaffing public departments with favored voting groups, reallocating property rights to favored business groups and dispensing privileges in return for campaign contributions. The third source of corruption was inadequate disclosure and enforcement of corporate actions. With a few exceptions, listed companies were run as family firms that viewed their firms as hereditary fiefdoms.

India began reforming its laws from 1991. Licensing for production was eliminated in the 1991 reforms, thus solving the problem of inefficient production and short supply of goods and services.

The state has also shifted from governance by quota to independent regulation. Regulators in finance, insurance, and telecommunications, among others, have been empowered with the right to enforce global best practices and given independence from other organs of the state.

However, corruption in state patronage remains, particularly in land and civic infrastructure allocation, patronage recruitment, and election finance, despite reforms in these areas.

In summary, it appears that while Indian laws are better than in most developing countries, corruption is rampant due to the forces of patronage and lax enforcement. It is widespread enough to be considered endemic. The Satyam Computer Services Limited episode is symptomatic of a wider problem rather than a one-off.

A recent issue of Outlook had a cover story on Koda, the former Chief Minister of Jharkhand, who is alleged to have looted Rs 4,000 crore from the state. A related article in the magazine was on all the scams that have taken place in India and how little we seem to care about all those stories on corruption.

The Reddy brothers, YSR’s family, Koda, Raja – these are just the latest additions. They are the tip of the iceberg. For the record, all of them get away with the loot, and continue to be in positions of influence. Indeed, I cannot think of a single politician who has put behind bars for corruption.

This is a cancer that is not restricted to any particular political party. It infects the whole system. An honest politician has become an oxymoron.

Politics has become a way – and perhaps the only way in India today – to amass unimaginable wealth in the shortest possible of time. Of course, entry to the club is becoming increasingly difficult because politicians have realised that getting one or more of their offsprings into politics is the surest way of ensuring the ill-gotten wealth stays. The façade of ‘youth’ is being used to legitimise power and money procured by dubious means.

We, the voters of the country, are as much to blame. We don’t demand accountability. We keep voting back to power the same folks who keep ripping us off. And in all this, we stay a poor country – waiting forever for the date with destiny.

Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has topped the corruption chart with about 4,300 cases.

It is followed by Delhi government, Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and Delhi Police.

There are about 457 corruption related cases against the Delhi government employees including 137 from Delhi Jal Board (DJB).

The DDA and Delhi Police where 305 and 133 officials respectively were facing corruption cases. Interestingly, 18 senior DDA officials have retired without their probe been completed.

According to MCD’s Vigilance department, as many as 4,299 cases were pending against 3,350 officials. Out of the registered cases, 1,435 cases were by anti- corruption branch of the Delhi Government, Police and CBI whereas 2,877 such cases were registered by its own vigilance wing.

The Delhi Police said that various criminal cases against 133 personnel were pending against serving officials since Jan 2008.

The cases were pending against eight inspectors, 12 sub inspectors, 18 assistant sub inspectors, 28 head constables and 67 constables.

Dear Madam/Sir

This is to bring to your kind notice that Delhi Jal Board Employee. Mr. Rakesh Kumar pathak R/o 431 Janta Flat Nand Nagari Delhi-53. Mr. Rakesh Kumar is not attending to the Delhi Jal Board office since last Eight Year. Corrupted Delhi Jal Board Employee help to Rakesh Kumar in maintain the attendance register and Salary from Delhi Jal Board. Instead he spends time in completing personal business Famous of Modern Glass Putty Industry ( Jhilmil industrial area shahdra delhi 53 And Dilshad Garden delhi) .The Document of the Modern Putty Industry Company has been prepared in such way that proves the company is owned by some other Person. But in realty the owner and Financer of Modern Putty Industry is Mr. Rakesh Kumar who is employee in Delhi Jal Board. Document prepared in the Name of His Wife Ms. Anita Pathak (House Wife) and his brother in Law . Who Live in Dilshad garden Delhi for protection of Mr. Rakesh Kumar from any action. If Mr. Rakesh Kumar is not owner of Modern Putty Industry then Why He does not attend the Delhi Jal Board Office why all the commercial vehicle of Modern Putty Industry are parking near his residential area and why all the employee of Modern putty Industry deal and got cash for field work by Mr. Rakesh Kumar from 431 Janta Flat GTB Enclave Nand Nagari Delhi 53 and why the all record of Purchase and delivered material, vendor visiting card, cash memo and other important document of Modern putty industry kept by Mr. Rakesh Kumar. All the tax return of Modern putty Industry has been prepared in the name of Ms Anita w/o Rakesh Kumar and Brother in Law of Rakesh Kumar Including Pan Card Details and salary(for Modern Putty industry employee) are distributed in factory in the name of Mises Anita w/o Rakesh Kumar and his Borther in Law for Protection of Rakesh Kumar. But in realty the owner and Financer is Mr. Rakesh Kumar as a result of which Rakesh kumar has saved lot of Property in the name of his wife, children and own relative like four Car, Three Motor Cycle, three Commercial Mahindhra three wheels Tempo Two Plots (Land) in Karaval Nagar Delhi, And a Big Land in Harsh Vihar Delhi and U.P on the name of his wife three children and his brother in law family member., A Temple in village whose source of Income, Lot of Gold and diamond jewelry, Luxury Furniture and free handsome Salary with 6th pay commission facility,CGHS and other Facility provided from Delhi Jal Board & income through Rent by 2nd floor of flat no 431 Janta Flat GTB Enclave delhi . Now Modern Putty Industry supply glass putty all U.P. Bihar, Haryana ,Delhi and some Part of M.P And Rajasthan. Respected Delhi C.M today generation facing unemployment problem and here is Mr. Rakesh Kumar Pathak enjoy free salary from delhi jal board with all facility provided by delhi Govt. We lodge the complain no CMO/PGC/529958 but complain is still pending in OSDCM (PG)table and other complain no is CMO/PGC/530262 complain format dispatched on 24/7/2009 to Chief Executive Office H,Q. Delhi Jal Board.In fact
the matter has been dismissed after bribing to the Delhi Jal Board authority.
we write to u with great hope & with the request to kindly conduct an enquiry this matter at your end & oblige. We are being threatened with life by Mr. Rakesh Kumar Pathak and his Wife Anita Pathak also.

O.P. Chanchal 427 Janta Flat GTB
Nand Nagari delhi 53

Shocked but not surprised. That might be the best way to sum up India’s reaction to the revelation this week that a black market organ transplant ring had been harvesting kidneys from poor Indian laborers, sometimes against their wishes, and using them in foreigners desperate for transplants. Police who busted the ring last week say doctors paid as little as $1000 for the kidneys and then sold them for as much as $37,500. The racket, based in Gurgaon, a business center close to the capital, New Delhi, drew victims from as many as eight Indian states and lasted for almost a decade. Police say the black market doctors may have illegally transplanted as many as 500 kidneys. The ring, according to the police, was run by two Indian brothers, neither of whom had any medical training but who oversaw the surgery. One of the brothers has been arrested in Mumbai, but the other, Amit Kumar, who police say was the racket’s kingpin, is now the focus of an international manhunt and may have fled to Canada.

But while the details of this particular case are appalling, and the scam is the first — or at least first to be exposed — involving foreigners from as far away as the U.S. and U.K flying in for transplants, Indians are sadly all too familiar with organ rackets. In 2007, police in southern India uncovered an illegal kidney trade involving fishermen whose jobs had been destroyed by the Indian Ocean tsunami. A massive transplant ring in Punjab was also uncovered in 2003. Police there believe at least 30 of the donors, who as in this latest case were poor, illiterate workers promised riches for their organs and bused in to be operated on, died, despite promises that they would receive excellent post-operation medical care and that they had nothing to worry about.

India’s illegal organ trade is driven in part by the incredible imbalance between supply and demand for legal organs. The Indian government banned the sale of kidneys for commercial gain in 1994; lawbreakers can be jailed for up to five years. But legal organ donations remain rare in India. The Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network (MOHAN), a Chennai-based non-government group that promotes legal organ donation, puts donation rates in India at well under 1 per million, compared to rates of more than 20 per million in places such as Spain, the U.S. and France. The group’s head Dr Sunil Shroff rejects the idea that Indian culture or religion is behind the low donation rates. “The reason is we haven’t got our act together basically,” he says. “The infrastructure is not there. The general perception is lacking.”

The Indian government has encouraged more people to donate, and a few years ago began a campaign to increase the rate of cornea donations to try to fix the country’s huge problems with blindness. But despite some success — the high-profile cricketer Anil Kumble and Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai both promised to donate their eyes when they die — a 2003 study in the Indian Journal of Opthamology found that illiteracy and rural residence (read poverty) meant that only half of those persons interviewed “had knowledge of eye donation, 20% knew about corneal transplantation and only 4.34% of them knew when to donate their eyes.”

Dodgy doctors exploit those same factors — illiteracy and poverty — to buy cheap organs on the black markets. There are millions of poor young men in India, desperate for a job and only too ready to travel to India’s big cities at the promise of a quick buck. And even if they’re not willing, they’re still potential fodder. The Associated Press reported that while some donors sold their kidneys willingly, some were forcibly brought to clinics, held at gunpoint and then forced to undergo operations that they didn’t want. “India is not such a literate population,” says a spokeswoman from the National Human Rights Commission. “That’s the main thing. There are a lot of people who are easy to take advantage of.”

Shroff and his colleagues at MOHAN argue that if India can push its legal donation rates up “then we can take care of the shortage and stop these kind of horror stories.” But encouraging families to donate the organs of their recently deceased after this week’s terrible revelations is no easy task. “For the next month or two it’s going to be extremely hard to get a family to donate because they think it’s some big scam,” says Shroff. “That’s the wider damage this type of story does.”

Education has lost its essence in the recent past. It has become a mere trade-off against money. The quantity has gained momentum whereas the quality has deteriorated. The education level of a child has become a matter of pride and honour for the parents. It’s role of empowering individuals, to be better human beings, is getting diminished with time.

Of late, the HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, declared UGC to be one of the most corrupt governing bodies in the country. Soon after that, there arose an ambiguity concerning the title of ‘Deemed University’.

The above steps have been taken to increase the transparency within this sector. These days, there is a flood of Institutions in the country, who claim to be the best among all . However, they are mere tuition centres, who charge huge amounts of fees ( that is charged by regular students of a University ) and provide degrees, whose validation is under question. Most of them donot even follow the norms setup by the Governing bodies to attain some minimum standards.

Moving from the prevalent scenario of higher education to that of the School level education, the decision that cannot be ignored is that of ‘ Scrapping of Class ten Board examinations’. The students of class 10 donot have to give Board Examinations. Rather, they would be marked through a year long process of Grades.

Reason behind such an action is to make the education system more practical and interesting for the students.

However, my question is that is it really happening ? Is the system able to impart values it is suppose to ? I donot think so.