Growing with Corruption to Real Growth

We have been a remarkably growing nation. If I compare the absolute growth of Indian economy which I am witnessing to what my earlier generations have seen or thought, mine is superlative in many senses and areas. Only thing which really troubles me is growth of corruption which we are witnessing, this also prevents me to relish the absolute growth (in terms of Rs & services).

Herewith I'll present few thoughts on how our growth story is shadowed by growing corruption and what would have happened if there was no corruption. It is found that   1% increase in the corruption level reduces the growth rate by about 0.72%(#1).

For this I may refer to few papers and studies which happened to study the correlation of growth with corruption, though there were different perspectives to it, I simply use it to see how corruption evolved,how our growth has been an ingredient of growing corruption and how corruption increased with overall economic growth.

The form of corruption in recent past has completely evolved. According to one of the interviews of Mr Javid Chowdhury( retd Senior IAS ) where he mentioned previously there was sheer manipulations in practicing duties &  usage of  "POWER" for awarding benefits to near and dear ones BUT now it is a total hijack of policies for close and near ones. Whole growth story is around few pockets. There is no sense of equality in country today and this divide is widening day by day.

Previously (10 -15 years back) people close to govt (Party) were enjoying loopholes in policies and were never shown a red card for any foul they committed and it was  intentional to benefit those sets of people. It was only restricted to govt being liberal to it's loyalists hence absolute value of corruption would have been marginal( a cut in all deals). 

Now a days it is a well organised Policy theft. Policies are being made to profit set of  Businessmen (may or may not be loyalist), It is being systematically choreographed to steal National wealth and other public properties hence there is no parity in GDP growth and corruption. GDP has grown from few billions to few hundred billion but corruption has certainly grown thousand times and hence it is dangerous for the society. This is well evident in Coal, Spectrum, Minerals, Health etc deals. This shows how greedy and casual politician are getting day by day.
So are we really growing ?

I think a slower growth with no corruption would have taken us lot further.

Going deep into its reasons - I feel that main point of growth has falsely been linked only with GDP. A wrong picture of shining India has been presented to us.

If we see past fashion of GDP growth which was tremendous and so each citizen would have grown but this did not happen, along with GDP corruption also grew many folds.

GDP grew 10-15X but we don't see all citizens prospering that much & equally. This is because Corruption grew exponentially hence corrupt people grew many folds but not the righteous.  

 Going further  if we ask a common man  how much his wealth has grown, you may get       -ve response from many.

Just by  observing GDP per Capita as our growth metric, we can deduce that we have not grown as much as we could (study of few countries similar to India shows the same ). #2 

GDP per capita -this in itself apply equality. Even though per capita improves, there is no fun in improving per capita earning theoretically(average) while in actual it is getting accumulated at only one corner. 

So whats the solution ?- It could lie in not allowing Policy makers to carve out policies  that could prove beneficial only to few & detrimental for Nation Or letting them exploit our current weak policies. That creates divide and few are making maximum use through its loopholes. This would require selecting good and responsible Govt(candidate).
Each one of us must feel themselves as custodian of National wealth , prestige and culture. Growth must not only be linked with money/wealth a nation posses.
According to me there may be other aspects of growth as follows -:

1. Transparency Index ( ratio of No. of RTI queries answered correctly) 
2. Number of innovations happening( reason being : settled producers have lobby but new innovators/entrepreneur don't have that).
3. Mixed development index( Not only progress of only IT or Auto sector, instead all other sectors must also be growing equally eg agriculture, manufacturing, Infra etc.)
4. Relate it with life style of a commoner in a village or town.
5. It can't only be related to electronic gadgets a common person possesses but facilities provided by govt and availed by a commoner.
6. Better political stability.
7. Lower or controlled cost of necessities (Eg electricity, Water & Affordable HOUSING).        and many more could be measured and monitored  as governance Metric or for judging a govt's performance .

These should be made mandatory as key area in govt's report card on which we elect or penalise our govt.

 

Corruption will only reduce if  each member of Govt is keen in implementing & bringing  processes which are mainly aimed for providing good HEALTH, EDUCATION and facilities to each citizen specially in rural areas rather than providing Luxuries only to Metros or for self interest. If people are made aware, matured & competent  so that they are equipped to decide for themselves, for country's well being & can ask for their rights. This will certainly bring more Private Investments & public participation and hence more efficient and agile system.

Let Innovation take place in a free environment. Where each individual attends more number of years in studying.

#1 http://conferences.wcfia.harvard.edu/sites/projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/gov2126/files/sdarticle-3.pdf
#2  http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/pols/Currentissue-pdf/corruption%20final.pdf

Keep reading and please suggest some better ways through your comments. Go through the references provided here.