Corruption in India has a long historical line, deeply established in well-built structures like social, political and economic structures.

 

What is corruption?

 

If I talk about corruption in my words, I would define it in a simple language as corrupt or fraudulent conduct by those who are in power which mainly involves wrongful conducts like bribery, or the misuse of public resources mainly for personal benefit or gain. It weakens the integrity and fairness of organisations, whether economies and societies. Illustration- a government official collecting bribes in exchange for awarding contracts to a company instead of the one may be providing the best value to the public. This fraudulent act not only affects the trust in government but also affects money of taxpayers and deprives meritorious businesses of opportunities. Corruption existed in various entities if we take an example about pre- independence era, during the British colonial rule often connected with the taxation and administration system. The British introduced various policies and rules that were favouring their interests not Indians which was contributing to corruption in the colonial system. Corruption did not stop or vanished after the British rule it never did or it never improved, yes it got worse corruption continued to endure after India gained independence with nepotism and patronage systems and many more. The license raj system which was set up in India between 1951 and 1991 for protecting Indian industry and advancing self- reliance also ensuring regional equality but failed to do so and provided various new opportunities for corruption and the licenses and permits became instruments for bribery or rent seeking later on was abolished by Narsimha Rao. Then came economic liberalisation in India in 1990s these were the reforms which aimed to abolished the license raj and promote the Indian economy, meanwhile these reforms which came into view promoted the growth of India and providing equal opportunities but also led to new shape of corruption like outright bribery which is also called crony corruption, crony corruption means building a close relationships between government servants and businesses resulting in partiality and misuse of resources. If we talk about 21 st century, corruption stayed extensive in important sectors like politics, judiciary, bureaucracy and law officials, many corruption cases went into limelight like commonwealth games scam, and high-profile corruption affairs which highlighted corruption in public institutions of India i.e. many campaigns for preventing corruption were introduced like India against corruption campaign which was supported by Anna Hazare and social activist Arvind Kejriwal and this movement gained a huge momentum at that time. The Indian government authorities has introduced various laws and regulation to prevent corruption in India including prevent of corruption act 1988, the central vigilance commission, the Lokpal and Loka yukatas act 2013.