India No 1 Exporter of Bribes, Beats China

India is the world’s top bribe payer, screams the headline today on the TOI.
I would just say Indians are.
Not to worry, perhaps bribery is the way to go.
Of the much talked about BRIC nations, 3 of the 4 nations held the top positions. Brazil is way below at the 8th position, tsk tsk.

Now everybody worth his salt have written or talked about that the BRIC nations are poised to become the world’s biggest nations by 2050, and if the list is any Indication, then India sure is becoming the most powerful nation amongst the 4. Simple logic, All 4 nations that are on the path to economic growth are willing to bribe their way to growth, and India tops the list. :)

Sarcasm apart, it is such a sad affair that India businessmen are exporting bribes along with the merchandise. Transparency International, the NGO which is publishing the Bribe payers index shows that Indian Exporters are willing to pay bribes even outside India to get the deal. We are out to spoil the world eh.

What was that joke?
Was it Japan who asked to lend Bihar for a year to change it to a place like Japan, and Laloo retorted that he can turn Japan to Bihar in a shorter time?

Bribing maybe bad, but perhaps it makes good business sense in certain businesses, commodities business and commodities exports for example. Whereas in businesses such as IT which require more intellectual capital than real capital, bribery doesn’t make much business sense.

We have seen two great companies in India. One is rumored to have bribed its way to the present billions, and the other was built without any such. The said second company, lets call it Wipro, had two divisions, still has. One is into IT, and the other into Commodities and such like. The IT arm today is a Billion dollar business and though the business may not be as big as the other company that was rumored to bribed its way to its billions, but then the owner is worth much more billions than the brothers, oops owners of the other company. Perhaps, not paying bribes pays off much better ;)
Oh, so the said division of this anti-bribe company that deals in commodities is not doing too well. So like I said, some businesses call for a certain amount of bribery, which is sad. But then, who are to blame. We can’t all be Azim Premji. We only aspire to be him, and revere him. But there are more people who want to be a Dhirubhai Ambani than Azim Premji. Sad Affair!!

[image courtesy: pestaola ]