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.

Rajendra Shekhawat campaigning in Amravati, where his parents once held elected office. His opponents belittle any suggestion that his family did not orchestrate his candidacy and call him a carpetbagger

Rajendra Shekhawat, nicely polished in a pressed white shirt and neatly parted hair, his face sunburned from campaigning in the south Indian sun, says he is running for office as a common man. His pink cheeks suggest otherwise, though, since common men in India usually toil outdoors without requiring sunscreen.

Another clue is the elephant in every room in which he campaigns in this city in the state of Maharashtra: Mom. She is Pratibha Patil, the president of India.

“I’m not using my parents’ name at all,” Mr. Shekhawat, 42, stated in an upstairs office in his parents’ home, which he is indisputably using as a campaign headquarters. “I’m running on my own. But for sure, being in a political family for so many years does help me, and gives me easy accessibility for doing the work of the people.”

Democracy is built on the oft-tarnished ideal that any man or woman can get elected, but in India, home to the world’s biggest democracy, it helps to be part of a political family. The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, scions of the governing Congress Party, is India’s version of the Kennedys. But other political dynasties, large and small, have proliferated so rapidly that many analysts believe nepotism is corroding the political system.

India’s chaotic politics can sometimes seem democratic to a fault: the election cycle rarely pauses and the country has roughly 1,050 registered national and regional political parties. But most of the major parties, including the majority Congress Party, are internally undemocratic; there are no primaries and party leaders discourage public dissent. Party bosses select candidates and have shown an increasing tendency to select their own relatives.

Here in Amravati, the decision by Congress Party leaders to run Mr. Shekhawat for Tuesday’s elections in Maharashtra State has provoked an angry backlash. He is running for a state assembly seat in the same district where his parents once held elected office. But to put him there, Congress leaders pushed aside Mr. Sunil Deshmukh, a former radiologist and two-term Congress incumbent with broad local support. Leaders offered Mr. Deshmukh the chance to run elsewhere, but he rebelled and is seeking his own seat as an independent.

“This is a fight against injustice,” declared Mr. Deshmukh, warming to his role as political insurgent. “If he is defeated, that will send a very strong message to all parties, no? If the person is only the son or daughter or a nephew of an important person, you can’t just thrust him on the people.”

Across India, political families are entrenched at every level of government and politics. At least nine of the 32 members of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet either descended from political families or have children seeking or holding office. Parliament is littered with political families; a recent study found that 31 of the 58 women elected had a husband, brother, father or father-in-law in politics.

The trend is even more glaring at the state level. In Maharashtra, analysts estimate that 30 or more party candidates running this month are from political families. The state’s chief minister, the top executive post, is the son of a former chief minister. This is also the case in two other states while the Congress Party is strongly considering replacing the late chief minister of Andhra Pradesh with his son.

“It has gotten into the DNA of the Indian political system,” said Jagdeep Chhokar, a founding member of the Association for Democratic Reform in New Delhi. “To control the workings of the party, the leader depends on trusted people. And one of the traditions of Indian culture is that you trust family members more than outsiders.”

Indian politics have a high turnover rate and voting blocs can be defined by region, religion, caste or community. Yet analysts say Indian voters favor a familiar family pedigree, partly because of a cultural reverence for the family and because of habits in some regions that trace back centuries. Several of the royal families who ruled over feudal states have today evolved into political families.

Modern India’s political marketplace is so crowded with parties and candidates that the “brand” of a familiar family name can bring an advantage, several analysts say. And the closed nature of political parties often perpetuates the dynastic problem; in several cases, rebels who broke from one party have formed their own and installed relatives around them.

Few political families are eager to step away from the power and lucre of office. In the state of Haryana, which has several local political dynasties, a recent study concluded that incumbents running for re-election had increased their personal wealth, on average, by 388 percent during their five years in office.

“Every political family these days is keen to keep someone in the field,” said Suhas Palshikar, who teaches politics at Pune University in Maharashtra. “Lots of resources are involved. Lots of networks are involved. And to put it crudely, a lot of money is involved.”

Mrs. Patil, 74, the Indian president, has less than three years remaining in her term. The position of president is largely ceremonial, with real power invested in the prime minister and his cabinet, though the presidency does command deference. Mrs. Patil’s press officer said the president had not been involved in her son’s candidacy but that the son, like anyone, has a constitutional right to seek office.

Her son’s opponents belittle any suggestion that his family did not orchestrate his candidacy and call him a carpetbagger who has spent much of his life away from Amravati, returning only in the past year after his political ambitions had been kindled.

“His only asset is his mom,” said Dr. Pradeep Shingore, 56, a cardiologist who is the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate for the seat. “Politics is being used as ancestral property.”

On a cloudless morning in one of the city’s slums, the incumbent, Mr. Deshmukh, led supporters on a padyatra, or foot march, a ritual in Indian politicking. Sprinkled in the crowd were the mayor and 20 other local officials from the Congress Party who are defiantly supporting him.

“People are very angry,” said Ashok Dongre, the mayor. “These families are not good for democracy because the common person, the party worker in the field, should be encouraged to go for higher positions. If you do not do that, how will the party succeed?”

Many observers consider Mr. Deshmukh the favorite in the race, though he faces practical obstacles. Every candidate on the ballot is accompanied by a party symbol, which provides a guide for illiterate rural voters. The Congress symbol, an open hand, is iconic in India. But as an independent, Mr. Deshmukh had no symbol; after considering choices offered by the election bureau, he decided upon an image of a television.

“He has come to seek your blessing!” a campaign worker shouted in the slum as others waved banners with the television image. “His symbol is television! Tee-vee! Tee-vee! Tee-vee!”

For his part, Mr. Shekhawat, the president’s son, brushes aside criticism of his candidacy. He is making his first run for office after working for an educational institute controlled by his family and has spent more than a decade working inside the Congress Party. He says Mr. Deshmukh has failed to promote development projects adequately and accuses him of the political sin of disloyalty.

“This kind of defiance shows indiscipline,” Mr. Shekhawat said. “Nobody is above the party. Nobody.”

Nepotism presents an especially complicated question for the Congress Party and the Gandhi dynasty. Rahul Gandhi, the presumptive heir to the party, has been visiting poor villages while promoting the idea of making the party more open and internally democratic. As part of his tour, Mr. Gandhi appeared Friday in Amravati for a rally with local Congress candidates.

On the stage with him was the president’s son.

India is still perceived to be one of the most corrupt countries by the transparency international in its annual corruption
perceptions.
India has been ranked 84th in the list of 180 countries in terms of public-sector corruption, which is perceived to be highly corrupt.
While releasing the list of naming and shaming the world’s most corrupt countries, the international watchdog has for the first time recommended that tax havens like Switzerland and Liechtenstein should do away with the secrecy in banking laws.

“Corrupt money must not find safe haven. It is time to put an end to secrecy in banking laws,” said the Berlin-based group’s head Huguette Labelle.

The bottom five nations were Somalia, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan and Iraq, while the cleanest countries with ranking close to perfect 10 were New Zealand, Denmark and Singapore.

This year developing countries like Serbia, Burkina Faso, Peru and Ghana fared better than India by claiming 83, 79, 75 and 69 spots respectively.

China scored 3.6 on the scale, thereby indicating slightly better position than India in terms of perception of corrupt countries.

In neighbouring countries, Nepal was at 143rd position much below India, Pakistan scored 2.4 claiming 139th position along with Bangladesh while Sri Lanka scored 3.1 and stood at 97th position.

Nearly half of the countries have scored three or less on the scale of zero (perceived to be most corrupt) to 10 (perceived to be least corrupt) showing that corruption is rampant across the world. The index prepared by the voluntary group used 13 different expert and business surveys.

“Transparency international has found that strong correlation between corruption and poverty continued to exist, jeopardising the global fight against poverty and threatening to derail the UN Millennium Development Goals,” Admiral (retd. R H Tahiliani, Chairman of Transparency International India said in a statement.

“”"BANGALORE: The worst nightmare of working parents entrusting the care of their children to nannies became a reality for a city couple recently. As soon as they would kiss their little one goodbye, the nanny would feed him and get him ready – for a day of begging on the streets of Bangalore. Instead of milk, the baby was fed sedatives; instead of the clothes carefully put out by his parents, she would dress him up in rags. The modus operandi was simple – she would hand the seven-month-old baby to beggars for Rs 100 a day and lie back at her employers’ home, watch soaps and feed herself to her heart’s content. And this was not an `ayah’ picked up by hearsay reference, she came duly recruited by an employment agency, considered a safe option. The horrifying story was revealed when the child’s mother – who works for an MNC – returned home early one day. She found the nanny sitting in front of the TV but the baby was missing. Taken aback, she confronted the nanny who then confessed that she had been sending the baby for begging for the past three weeks. It’s only then that the parents realized why their son was drowsy and inactive in the evenings – he was being sedated everyday but for weekends when the parents would be home. Strangely, though, the couple have so far not lodged a police complaint. “The parents want to remain anonymous and don’t want to even talk about it,” a source said. They are said to be planning to move abroad. It isn’t clear whether this incident has forced them to take this step, but it would be hardly surprising if they wish to leave this nightmare behind. According to State Children Commission officials, a suo motu case will be filed against the nanny. “We are trying to track the family and get more details about the crime and the nanny. As beggary is a punishable offence, stringent action will be taken against the culprit. The commission will meet on Friday to decide on the course of action. “”"

Suicide is now seen much more as a sociological problem than one relating to an individual.

This phenomenon is growing in India with the latest figures showing a 28 per cent jump over the past 10 years.

In 1997, 95,829 people committed suicide and by 2007 the number of persons taking their own lives went up to 122,637, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

The NCRB says Maharashtra, followed by West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, registered consistently higher numbers of suicidal deaths over the past few years and accounted for 10 per cent or more of the total suicides reported in the country during 2005-07.

Puducherry reported the highest rate of suicide in 2007 (48.6 per 100,000 people) followed by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (38.5) while the all-India rate was 10.8 in 2007 compared to 10.5 during 2006.

Family problems and illnesses were two major factors in this, accounting for more than 22 per cent of the suicides during the years 2005-07. In 35 per cent of the cases, people took poison, while 32 per cent hanged themselves.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), suicide is now seen in South East Asia as a major public health problem. “Cumulative research, media reports and anecdotal evidence over the past three decades reveal that suicides are an emerging epidemic the world over.”

WHO says those who commit suicide give early indications of doing so. In India, 10-20 per cent of those who died this way had seen a physician a few days before taking the step.

Psychological counsellor Neera Jain said: “The disintegration of the joint family has removed the support system for the individual at times of emotional and psychological crisis.”

The president of the International Association of Suicide Prevention (IASP), Brian Mishara, said: “More than a million people worldwide die by suicide each year.”

Mishara says that 60 per cent of suicides now occur in Asia, with China, India and Japan accounting for 40 per cent. “Timely corrections of mental health issues and healthy lifestyles can be part of a multi-pronged approach,” said Dr Sameer Malhotra, head, division of psychiatry and psychotherapy, Fortis Hospital.

S.K. Chaturvedi, head of the department of psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, said, “We encourage them to share their problems and feelings with us, and try to assess their situations.

Sometimes if we find that the patient is at great risk of committing suicide, we admit them in the hospital.”

NIMHANS sees nearly 500 people with emotional, sexual and social problems daily, he said.

One thing is certain: this form of death is the most difficult one to prevent.

NEW DELHI – Twenty five years after the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, those who lost their family members have not given up hope of getting justice, and are pinning their hopes on the court hearing the case against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler.

“We are left with only one hope of getting justice and that is from the court. We are praying to god that court should help us in punishing the guilty. The last 25 years was a terrible experience for all of us, said Amrit Singh Lovely, a resident of Tilak Vihar in west Delhi.

He said some of the victims’ families will protest outside the court Saturday.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had, at the last hearing, said the witnesses, who deposed about the alleged role of Tytler in the anti-Sikh riots, were “not reliable”.

Additional CBI public prosecutor submitted before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rakesh Pandit that the two witnesses, Surinder Singh – who died recently – and Jasbir Singh, were unreliable as they have contradicted their statements on various occasions.

Citing the case of Surinder, who had deposed against Tytler, the CBI counsel said Surinder, in his first affidavit before the Nanavati Commission in January 2002, had stated that Tytler along with others had attacked Gurdwara Pul Bangash in north Delhi and killed Thakur Singh and Badal Singh. But in another affidavit in August 2002, Surinder had denied Tytler’s role, he added.

The probe agency will Saturday continue its argument on the version given by Jasbir Singh.

Jasbir too claimed to be witness to the Nov 1, 1984, incident when a mob had set on fire the gurdwara, killing three people.

The CBI had last month during the hearing also placed before the court audio visual evidence showing that Tytler was near the body of assassinated prime minister Indira Gandhi at the time of the incident.

CBI, which had April 2 sought to close the case against Tytler claiming there wasn’t sufficient evidence against him, had questioned the jurisdiction of a magisterial court and sought the matter to be transferred to a sessions court.

The court, however, was not convinced with the CBI’s arguments and decided to hear the closure report.

Over 3,000 Sikhs were killed in the riots in various cities following the assassination of Indira Gandhi on Oct 31, 1984.

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.

Three-year-old Neeraj Berma (name changed) has a nerve protrusion on his neck and needs a surgery, but he has been told to go home and come back two years later.
“On October 2, we were asked to come back for surgery in September 2011,” said his mother Madhu Berma, 28, who lives in an unauthorized colony near the posh Maharani Bagh neighbourhood in South Delhi.
“I have a choice between letting my son suffer for two years or take him to a private hospital, where they will charge us at least Rs 80,000.”
The case of the Bermas is not an aberration. Three other patients who need neurosurgery were given dates between August and September 2010.
Two were asked to come the next day for a date, while two others were not offered any dates at all.
Muhammad Shagir (28) from Bulanshahar is one of them.
He needs a date for his newborn son’s spinal surgery but has been turned away six times in one month.
“I can’t get a surgery date till I don’t get an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) done. Today, I was given a date for MRI for November 11,” said Shagir, who works as a daily wage labourer in an embroidery factory.
“The nerve protrusion in my son’s spine is getting bigger every day. What if he does not survive till November?”
He earns about Rs 150 a day and supports a family of six. “The two-day trip (to Delhi) and other expenses will cost me at least Rs 5,000 and then another trip for surgery. From where will I get the money?” he said.

A cat and mouse game is now a regular feature at Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur Station, 266 km east of Lucknow.

There are, on the one hand, human traffickers smuggling young girls from Nepal, and a group of individuals trying to stop the practice, on the other.

Though the issue has not figured in discussions between political leaders of the two countries, it has become so sensitive that it is inflaming anti-Indian sentiments in Nepal.

Maoists in Nepal, a political force to reckon with, have been demanding a ban on sale of liquor and girl trafficking. They had even made it known that anyone taking part in this would be humiliated publicly. And they want the Indian government to take concrete action.

“Earlier we used to rescue the girls at Gorakhpur Station itself. It is easy to identify them — scared, huddled together. But then some touts also started travelling by road to Deoria, about 100 km east of Gorakhpur, to board the trains (to escape us),” said Abhishek Shahi of the Childline Foundation, a central government organisation.

“The girls are picked up from Nepal on the promise of employment. They are handed over to touts operating on the Indian side. The tout would then take them to Delhi or Mumbai. He also helps in getting them a passport to go to other countries.”

In Mumbai, the girls are paraded before prospective buyers: the younger ones are sold to buyers in West Asia and the rest are sent to brothels across the country.

Traffickers and their agents trick young girls and their parents by promising them work and the pleasure of visiting spas and beauty parlours, only to push them into the sex trade.

Neither the parents nor the girls make much money from the deal. While the agent earns Rs 1-10 lakh, the parents end up with something like Rs 5,000, according to Shahi.

The Asian Development Bank estimates that 100,000-200,000 Nepalese women and girls, roughly 25 per cent of whom are less than 18, are held in Indian brothels.

A recent study by Maiti, a non-government organisation in Nepal, said: “There are about 70,000 Nepali women migrant workers working in various international foreign labour markets. Annually, Nepal receives approx $1.5 billion (Rs 7,200 crore) as remittances and the contribution of women migrants make up about 11 per cent to this figure. In total, remittance has more than 17 per cent contribution to the GDP of our country.”

Maiti has estimated that a significant number of such girls end up being sex workers.

“Earlier the girls were sold to Indian brothels, but now they are being sent to the Gulf. It’s nearly impossible to bring them back from there,” said Prabha Khanal, a regional manager of Maiti.

Maiti rescued 13 girls in August this year. While six of them were intercepted at Kalyan railway station near Mumbai, four of the repatriated girls were rescued from Sahara International Airport, Mumbai, and another three from a brothel in Mumbai.

Dava Bhuti Tamang Sherpa (21) was sent to Lebanon. On her return, she was handed over to Maiti by Nepal’s Tribhuvan International Airport Metropolitan police. She had lost vision in one eye; her hands were bruised and burnt. She did not get the promised $150 (Rs 7,200) a month either. The physical torture suffered at the hands of her clients was evident.

Padma Darai (23) was brought back from Saudi Arabia, almost mad.

“Often girls are simply sent back to Nepal after their utility is over,” said Khanal.

With tears in her eyes, Revti (name changed on request) narrated her experience of escape from a Mumbai brothel. “Life is miserable. We have to serve up to five customers a day. The payment varies from Rs 150 to 500 a customer. But the owner of the brothel pockets the money. We live on tips, which is Rs 5-25.”

Several NGOs have set up counters on all major points on the Indo-Nepal border to counsel girls against migration.

Volunteers sit near the two main border crossing points at Bahraich in central UP and Maharajganj in eastern UP to maintain close surveillance. They are also running awareness campaigns in Nepal to save vulnerable girls from traffickers and their agents.

NGOs in Nepal too are now working closely with their counterparts in India to check the menace. “If the touts have built a network, we are also building one to combat them,” said Shahi.