Corruption in India

This article on Corruption in India relies on a poor legal and a weak statistical base relying on mere opinions and impressions in the website www.ipaidabribe.com. Any one who visits this website can make out that neither there is accountability of the person who reports a bribe nor there is any sort of verification such as voter's ID or driving license number or ration card number or any such thing provided. Also there is no punitive clause for those who make a fake allegation. The website just asks to mention the Amount of bribe, City, Date paid, Office or Department and the Name of the Transaction towards which the bribe was paid. This does not stand a legal standing since the website hides more than what it reveals. In addition, the author has not considered the other three aspects "I did not pay a bribe", "I did not have to pay a bribe", "I don't want to pay a bribe" which also influences 'corruption'. Further, it is not the mean corruption which counts, since mean is influenced by extreme values. It is the 'modal' corruption which counts.

This comment does not mean that there is no corruption. It only means that the researcher needs to conduct a primary survey for obtaining information on the transaction costs. This vetting is crucial before totally believing the information posted on a website.

It is also crucial to note why there is such a great variation for the same operation (i.e. police verification) between the 'estimators' Mean and Median. The author draws no implication from the study. One implication could be to include the modal corruption (after due verification from primary data as suggested) paid as a 'search fee' or 'police verification fee' so that the Police Department gets this payment. Police have to maintain law and order and have other works to do and passport work needs to be accounted and involves a transaction cost which needs to be paid by the seeker. This also brings in accountability so that the seeker can always say that I have paid the fee and even though this would not guarantee that one would have a zero police verification fee, it brings in greater transparency.