Corruption in India has been exposed in many forms of late and we have documented this in GWI. Politicians, Bureaucrats, Army Generals and Business Owners have been found to be guilty in numerous cases of corruption and pelf . Politicians and Businessmen have been jailed but they have managed to get out on bail using their millionaire lawyers to fake illness and other shenanigans. Some politicians are now involved in both professions with some rumored to be billionaires owning companies through surreptitious means and parking their money in Swiss banks. Business Groups in India see their shares rising and going down depending on which political party wins proving the nexus between politicians and businessmen. There has been no reforms to separate these two and now powerful politico-business dynasties have started ruling large parts of India.
Continuous scams and scandals have started derailing the story. Massive project delays,real estate shenanigans have resulted in a perceptible slowing of Indian growth.Infrastructure companies have started slowing down with some of the darlings even bleeding red ink from the growing problems. Combine this with inflation,inequity and rising interest rates has led to a sharp correction in the Indian stock market. With the Telecom Scam still afresh amongst the masses, there has been a major reputation tarnishing of India’s image not only amongst its own citizens but also internationally. While these cases have not led to a stoppage of Foreign investment into India, a major corruption case involving 2 top executives of Reebok & Adidas has the potential to massively damage India’s investment scenario. These executives are alleged to have siphoned off millions of dollars from their parent company taking advantage of their positions.
Note what has always been known but never exposed in the mainstream media is that C Level executives in India of MNC arms have been involved in underhand deals . It is widely known that top executives regularly take bribes in procurement contracts . Setting up of factories, offices allows the executives to collude with suppliers in cheating their companies with millions of dollars. However even in cases where wrongdoing is found, no legal action is taken as the company does not want to sully its own reputation. In the Reebok case, the executives are let to get away. Fortunately in this case the media has managed to unravel some of the dirty linen allowing criminal proceedings to start against the guilty parties. India is already suffering due to the 2G scandal in which big telecom companies of friendly countries are taking billion dollar hits. With a trust deficit between parent company headquarters and Indian headquarters, the investment into India could come down drastically. The private sector which has been the major engine of growth and innovation is also getting caught in the corruption tangle.