Can our political system convert crisis into opportunity?

India has a robust and vibrant democracy. We don't have to be defensive about our governance challenges

- JAYAPRAKASH NARAYAN

The charges levelled against the Adani group of Companies by the US federal prosecutors and the Security Exchange Commission pose a formidable challenge to the Indian establishment. India's large corporate groups—Ambani, Adani and Tata—are our national champions, critical for India's growth ambitions over the next three decades. India needs a massive infrastructure push, and these three groups alone have committed over $250 billion investment in the coming years.

The license-permit-quota raj institutionalised until 1991 fed a system of massive corruption and rent-seeking. In the post-1991 era, with economic liberalisation, competition among producers and choice for consumers became the norm. However, the Indian state failed to dismantle the political economy of rent-seeking. Corruption is fuelled by greed for personal gain through abuse of power.

The vast, unaccountable bureaucracy used the political vulnerability to extort money from businesses, as well as hapless citizens. Payment of bills due to a supplier, power purchase agreements and contracts even after competitive bidding, allocation of natural resources like land and mines, the myriad of regulatory powers, routine service delivery to which citizens are entitled, release of subsidies, registration of property transfer, tax assessments and many other business-government and citizen-government interactions are mediated by corruption. Surveys indicate that over half of the households of India are forced to pay a bribe for some service or other in a given year. Corrupt politicians and extortionary bureaucracy are in cahoots in this system of rent-seeking.