Bijo Francis
Column: Incredible India
Hong Kong, China — India celebrated its 60th Republic Day on Monday, an occasion to recall the country’s progress in a number of sectors. While most countries that attained independence from colonial rule in the 20th century have gone through rollercoaster rides or capsized into various forms of dictatorship, India has remained a democracy, despite its fallibilities.
Yet two recent incidents reveal that not all is well in India. The billion-dollar scandal involving software company Satyam Computer Services, and the shocking findings of environmental degradation recently released by Joakim Larsson, a research scientist from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, reveal how corruption prevails in India, despite all it has achieved in the past six decades.
The Satyam scandal has also exposed other entities connected to the company, like PricewaterhouseCoopers, a multinational firm that provides professional services including auditing. The fact that Satyam, whose accounts were audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the past several years, was able to cook its account books showcases the extent to which corruption is possible in India.
It is sheer irony that Satyam – whose name comes from the ancient Pali language and literally translates as “truth” – lied to its investors, and PricewaterhouseCoopers did everything other than proper auditing. The auditing firm is not considered trustworthy in some informed circles in India, since a similar scandal, relating to the Delhi municipal water supply, exposed the firm trying to commit fraud upon ordinary people with the connivance of the World Bank. Yes, corruption in India also has taken in the World Bank.
To the average Indian, Satyam and its billion-dollar scandal means nothing much. But the research finding by Larsson means the difference between life and death to the ordinary public. The research focused on the industrial contamination of the Isakavagu stream that feeds the Nakkavagu and Manjira, two tributaries of the Godawari River, a major river in south India.
The research has exposed the shocking levels of industrial contamination, specifically from pharmaceutical companies in Patancheru of Andhra Pradesh state. The drugs manufactured by these companies are consumed in India and exported to the United States. As of today, the United States is the single largest consumer of the drugs produced by these companies, a business that amounts to an estimated US$1.2 billion per year.
The study reveals that complex derivatives like antibiotics and other medicines used for treating serious ailments like gonorrhea and hypertension are found in high concentrations in the river. Due to this the villagers are now forced to depend on water delivered through pipes from a nearby city or by water tankers. However, such pipelines are inadequate and the tankers rarely turn up.
The fact is that people, who otherwise depended upon natural sources of water like the river itself or country wells, are now to depend on water piped in from the city. It will take considerable effort to convince these unfortunate villagers that this is the price they have to pay for the country's development.
The story of Patancheru village depicts the effects of breakneck development in rural India. Unlike the celebrity status achieved by sweatshop workers in countries like China, Vietnam and Cambodia, the stories of the people in rural India who suffer for a few rich men to get richer are relatively unknown to the rest of the world.
Such issues in India survive because of the widespread prevalence of corruption. Corruption prevents the equitable distribution of wealth and services in the country. It allows the over exploitation of natural and other resources. It allows entities like Satyam and PricewaterhouseCoopers to defraud investors. It affects life, irrespective of which strata of society one belongs to. It prevents state agencies from functioning according to their mandate.
Take for example the pollution of Isakavagu stream in Patancheru. The State Pollution Control Board is a government agency that is mandated to monitor and to control pollution. From the research conducted by Larsson, it is apparent that this state agency has done nothing to prevent pollution.
This agency, by law, is authorized to revoke the licenses issued to the pharmaceutical companies that pollute the stream. It could also impose penalties against the polluters. The proper functioning of this single state agency would have made a world of difference for the people in Patancheru. Throughout India, one can easily find similar stories.
India is no more a country of snake charmers and turban-clad coolies as depicted in Rudyard Kipling's stories and poems. Nor is it a state ruled by the dictates of a central politburo. India is a democratic republic that has maintained the relative independence of the four pillars of democracy.
What it lacks, however, is a means to bridge the increasing divide between the classic haves and have-nots. What is needed to bridge this gap is the political will to combat corruption.
Yet two recent incidents reveal that not all is well in India. The billion-dollar scandal involving software company Satyam Computer Services, and the shocking findings of environmental degradation recently released by Joakim Larsson, a research scientist from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, reveal how corruption prevails in India, despite all it has achieved in the past six decades.
The Satyam scandal has also exposed other entities connected to the company, like PricewaterhouseCoopers, a multinational firm that provides professional services including auditing. The fact that Satyam, whose accounts were audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the past several years, was able to cook its account books showcases the extent to which corruption is possible in India.
It is sheer irony that Satyam – whose name comes from the ancient Pali language and literally translates as “truth” – lied to its investors, and PricewaterhouseCoopers did everything other than proper auditing. The auditing firm is not considered trustworthy in some informed circles in India, since a similar scandal, relating to the Delhi municipal water supply, exposed the firm trying to commit fraud upon ordinary people with the connivance of the World Bank. Yes, corruption in India also has taken in the World Bank.
To the average Indian, Satyam and its billion-dollar scandal means nothing much. But the research finding by Larsson means the difference between life and death to the ordinary public. The research focused on the industrial contamination of the Isakavagu stream that feeds the Nakkavagu and Manjira, two tributaries of the Godawari River, a major river in south India.
The research has exposed the shocking levels of industrial contamination, specifically from pharmaceutical companies in Patancheru of Andhra Pradesh state. The drugs manufactured by these companies are consumed in India and exported to the United States. As of today, the United States is the single largest consumer of the drugs produced by these companies, a business that amounts to an estimated US$1.2 billion per year.
The study reveals that complex derivatives like antibiotics and other medicines used for treating serious ailments like gonorrhea and hypertension are found in high concentrations in the river. Due to this the villagers are now forced to depend on water delivered through pipes from a nearby city or by water tankers. However, such pipelines are inadequate and the tankers rarely turn up.
The fact is that people, who otherwise depended upon natural sources of water like the river itself or country wells, are now to depend on water piped in from the city. It will take considerable effort to convince these unfortunate villagers that this is the price they have to pay for the country's development.
The story of Patancheru village depicts the effects of breakneck development in rural India. Unlike the celebrity status achieved by sweatshop workers in countries like China, Vietnam and Cambodia, the stories of the people in rural India who suffer for a few rich men to get richer are relatively unknown to the rest of the world.
Such issues in India survive because of the widespread prevalence of corruption. Corruption prevents the equitable distribution of wealth and services in the country. It allows the over exploitation of natural and other resources. It allows entities like Satyam and PricewaterhouseCoopers to defraud investors. It affects life, irrespective of which strata of society one belongs to. It prevents state agencies from functioning according to their mandate.
Take for example the pollution of Isakavagu stream in Patancheru. The State Pollution Control Board is a government agency that is mandated to monitor and to control pollution. From the research conducted by Larsson, it is apparent that this state agency has done nothing to prevent pollution.
This agency, by law, is authorized to revoke the licenses issued to the pharmaceutical companies that pollute the stream. It could also impose penalties against the polluters. The proper functioning of this single state agency would have made a world of difference for the people in Patancheru. Throughout India, one can easily find similar stories.
India is no more a country of snake charmers and turban-clad coolies as depicted in Rudyard Kipling's stories and poems. Nor is it a state ruled by the dictates of a central politburo. India is a democratic republic that has maintained the relative independence of the four pillars of democracy.
What it lacks, however, is a means to bridge the increasing divide between the classic haves and have-nots. What is needed to bridge this gap is the political will to combat corruption.
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