Essay on Corruption in India

ndia is the fastest growing economy in the world. Most of Indian people do hard work in their
field to obtain the highest level. Still, India is so much behind compared to other developing
countries such as Brazil, Russia, South Africa and China. What is the main reason behind
this? Corruption! Yes, it is the corruption which leads to so much inflation and poverty in the
country. Otherwise India was widely known as the Sone ki Chidiya in the past.

Corruption becomes a household word after Anna Hazares movement India Against
Corruption. It was considered as Indias largest movement against corruption. Why corruption
issue is so much important in India? Yes, it is a national issue because every person face it in
their daily life at every stage. People have to pay bribe daily in Government offices for their
work. Without paying bribes, your work will be delayed or you will be harassed by the officials.
In various allegations, Indian politicians kept billions of dollars in Switzerland banks. Every
Indian citizens has knowledge that Indian politicians are earning millions and billions of dollars
from India and depositing this money in Switzerland banks.
Corruption has spread its wings in politics, government services and bureaucracy. In the
education system, you have to pay bribes for admission. In hospitals, you have to pay bribes to
get admitted. In recent times, corruption has also affected justice in the country.
To grow their business, corporate houses are also paying bribes to get their work done. They pay
bribes to get benefits from the Government. Recent scandals such as 2G scam, Coalgate scam
and Karnataka Wakaf Board land scam proves rampant corruption in the country.
We can say that corruption becomes social evil in India. Indian politicians will not able to
remove corruption from our country. Youth should stand against corruption in the country. There

is a need of special fast track courts for corruption, scams and scandals related cases. There
should be independent anti-corruption body which will not work directly under the Government.
NGOs, Print Media and Electronic Media should come forward to create awareness against
corruption in the country. In the last, citizens has big responsibilities to remove/eliminate/stop
corruption from every stage and make India free from corruption. Jai Hind

Essay on Inflation a Major Cause of

Inequality
By R Jain
Essay on Inflation a Major Cause of Inequality. Sri Bhabatosh Datta, the famous economist has
clearly stated that: The origin of inflation is often found in the panicky nervousness of unstable
governments in olitically unstable communities.
Given political stability there is no reason why India should not be able to carry out her future
plans without generating serious inflationary pressure on the price level.
The percentage of inflation in regard to price movements and the purchasing power of the rupee
need to be evaluated on the basis of wholesale price index (WPI) with 1950-51 as the base year.
Unfortunately, the government with the intention of preventing a factual comparison of the
purchasing power of rupee, keeps changing the base year every decade, from 1950-51 to 196061, later to 1970-71 and finally to 1980-81.
Deficit financing in every five year plan and improper planning led to a 40 percent rise in food
grains, 45 percent in cereals and over 70 percent rise in pulses during 1961-1966. The country
was in the grip of a galloping inflation. This with 1950-51 as the base year.
Keeping 1960-61 as the base year, the Fourth five year plan save the price index at an all time
high of 331 in September 1974 (with 1961-62-100). This was due to a combination of several
factors, the primary being the influx of refugees in large numbers from Bangaldesh and the
expenses incurred by the government on them, failure of Kharif crops in 1972-73 and complete
failure to take over the wholesale wheat trade. The declaration of Emergency in June 1975
resulted the arrest of price rise and a steep fall in inflation and prices of commodities.
Unfortunately, political upheavals, callous bureaucracy and an equally callous inflationary
budget by the Finance Minster Mr. Charan Singh in 1979 brought all the good work reduced to
nil and inflation back to an all time high, and the election of a new government in January 1980
saw that inflation was taken up as top priority. However priorities in our country kept changing

due to political considerations and the rate of inflation kept going up and being pulled back
again. The 1980s saw, by and large, a controlled inflation.
The 1990s again saw the economy and inflation rate in doldrums with double digit inflation in
1990-91 and 1991-92. The political considerations in increasing the prices of food grains was
one factor, the second being the steep rise in prices of petroleum products in one go. The
inflationary pressure was mainly on food grains, vegetables, cereals, sugar and vegetable oils.
Due to these factors, the galloping rise in prices continued for the better part upto mid-nineties.
Inflation has been defined in the literal sense as related to economic factors as a progressive
increase in the general level of prices brought about by an expansion in demand or the money
supply or by autonomous increase in costs or the rate of increase of prices.
Causes of Price Rise:
There cannot be any single cause for price rise of essential commodities continually over the
years. Infact, over the years and even from the time of independence, there have been regular
inflationary pressure on the economy partly through imbalance in demand and supply. The ever
increasing demand has been primarily due to our ever increasing and bulgeoning population.
Even a few decades ago it used to be around 12 to 14 million every year which has gone up to
nearly 20 million every year.
This increase in population automatically creates an increased demand for food and essential
commodities which results in a persistent gap between demand and supply in almost all
consumer goods and services. It is indeed unfortunate that we have not been able to evolve a
fixed and common norm to check the spiraling population, something which China has been able
to achieve. Our politicians, monetarists and structuralists have chosen to ignore or underplay the
effect of this growth on prices. India has several problems besides inflation, all affecting the
citizens and creating more disparity between the rich and poor but no problem can be solved
satisfactorily unless the growth of population is checked.
Mounting government expenditure over the years has also been responsible for inflation. The
total expenditure of Central and State government in 1950-51 was about Rs. 750 crores only.
This expenditure went upto Rs. 37,000 crores in 1980-81, further up to Rs. 5,80,000 crores in
2000-2001. Much of this has been non-development expenditure implying and increased in large
money income in the hands of general public and stoking the fires of inflation. The populist
measures of doubling and trebling salaries of government employees without implementing the
rest of the recommendations of the Fifth pay commission has put an excessive burden on the
exchequer without deriving any benefits from this.
Deficit budgeting is another reason for inflation. Mounting government expenditure financed
through deficits directly pushes up money supply consequently pushing up demand. This has
been responsible for the inflationary situation in the country with the State governments further
adding to the problems through persistent financial indiscipline, reckless expenditures and
unauthorized overdrafts.

Black Money:
There is considerable slush money with politicians and Government servants, mainly those
dealing with licensing, registration, sales tax, trade tax, income tax etc. this slush money is used
in real estates pushing up already high prices, extensive hoarding and black marketing inflation
sensitive goods. The role of continual black money influx in creating inflationary pressures
cannot be discounted.
Taxation and Wages:
The increased taxes in every budget gives an opportunity for corrupt traders to further push up
taxes even beyond the levy. With fat pay packets, the higher salaried class and government
services do not feel the punch what with dearness allowances applicable.
Procurement:
The policy of compulsory procurement by the government is another factor. With politics playing
an important role in fixing procurement prices most of the time at unreasonable rates. This
automatically leads to increase in prices of agricultural products.
The really serious effects of inflations are the distribution of income in india. Inflation has
brought about a considerable disparity in income. The producers, traders and speculators have
gained enormously through illegal gains, ever-increasing profits and windfall gains through
black marketing, hoarding and speculation. But what about the working class in unorganized
sectors small establishments where wages remain constant despite continual increase in prices
over the years. What about the persons living on past savings, fixed dogs, our Finance Minister
has deliberately ignored them and in his latest Budget (2003) reduced interest on savings in post
deposits earlier got 12 percent interest which means that earlier he was getting Rs. 12 thousand
per year at the least on a deposit of Rs. 1 lakh but now gets Rs. 8 thousand or even Rs. 7
thousand per year only, this with the increased prices further reducing his purchasing power. The
middle class has now been bifurcated into the border line, the lower and the upper middle class.
Inflation has brought about shifts in the distribution of income from the poor and weak to the
powerful and rich. The rich have become richer and the poor have become poorer. Our
democracy has the egalitarian welfare state incorporated in our constitution but has moved away
from this avowed objective and instead created a situation where it has become responsible for
increasing poverty and gross inequality of income and wealth.

Essay on the Causes of Poverty

By Neha Pansare

Essay on the Causes of Poverty The causes of poverty many sided. However, they may be
discussed under the following heads: (i) Individual incapacity, (ii) Economic factors, (iii) Social
factors, (iv) Demographic factors, and (v) other factors.
(i) Individual Incapacity and Other Deficiencies:
From the view point of the ideology of individualism, the individual failure itself is responsible
for poverty. Success or failure in life, according to this ideology, is entirely a personal matter.
Hence, it is logical to conclude that if an individual fails to achieve success in life and suffers
from poverty, he himself is to be blamed for his laziness, inactivity, lack of initiative, dullness
and incapacities. The Protestant Ethic described by Max Weber also emphasizes this aspect.
What factors contribute to individual incapacity?
There are various causes for an individuals failure. Failure in life may be due to some inborn
deficiencies such as physical or mental handicap, dumbness, deafness, blindness,
feeblemindedness, deficient legs and hands, and so on.
Some of the deficiencies might have been developed later in life. Since an individual does not
have any control over many of these deficiencies, he is bound to yield to them and suffer from
them. They make such an individual a parasite on society.
Some of the deficiencies which can be managed or overcome are often neglected by some
individuals and hence they fall a prey to the problem of poverty. We may include under this
category, deficiencies such as illiteracy, laziness, extravagance, immorality, bad habits such as
gambling, alcoholism, etc.
(ii) Economic Causes of Poverty
1. Inadequate Economic Development:
Our economic development since independence has been disappointing in certain respects. The
rate of growth of our economy between 1951-91 has been just 3.5% which is negligible.
During the year 2004-05, though this rate of growth increased to 5%, it was not enough to fight
the challenges of poverty. Our per capita income is still very less. It was
around Rs. 255/- in 1950-51, and it increased to Rs. 19,649/- [at 1990-00 prices] in 2004-05. In
comparison with other advanced countries this is quite less.
2. Increasing Unemployment:
Our economy has not provided enough employment opportunities for the people. Hence
unemployment is mounting. In 1952, the number of registered unemployed persons was about
4.37 lakhs and it increased to 334 lakhs in 1990. By December 1991, the figure had swelled to
36.3 millions. It further increased to 41.39 millions by the end of December, 2003.

3. Unmanageable Inflationary Pressures:

Due to incessant inflation, the value of money has come down. It came down to 8.28 paise in
1990-91. The annual rate of inflation was estimated to be at 13.4% in 1991 and with great
difficulty it was brought down to 7.3% in 1997. The value of rupee further decreased to 7.2 paise
at 1960-61 prices. This uncontrolled inflation adversely affected the purchasing power of the
common people.
4. Capital Deficiency:
Industries require huge capital for their fast growth. But lack of enough capital has hampered the
growth of our industries. The process of economic liberalization which has been let loose
recently, has of course, started showing its positive results during these days. Time is not ripe to
pass find judgements and its results.
5. Too much Dependence on Agriculture:
Our economy is primarily an agrarian economy. More than 65% of the people are still dependent
on agriculture. Agriculture has its own limitations. In India, in particular, people are following
the traditional method of cultivation and hence agricultural production is comparatively very
less.
(iii) Demographic Factors:
Population in India is growing at an alarming rate. Within 60 years [1921-1981] it had doubled.
It has reached an incredible number of 122.3 crore in 2008. Hence, the little progress that is
achieved in the economic sphere is being eaten away by the growing population.
As per 1998-99 estimates, 8% of the people [9.60 crores] are above 60 years and their capacity to
contribute to economic production is limited. About 35.7% of the people are below 14 years of
age and hence are incapable of earning.
The size of the Indian family is relatively bigger. The average size of the Indian family is around
4.2. The growing size of the population has it adverse effects on peoples health. A sizeable
number of people are suffering from various diseases for which proper medical treatment is not
available.
(iv) Social Causes:
(a) Traditionalism:
India is a land of traditionalism, communalism, casteism, linguism, parochialism, religious and
linguistic prejudices and so on. These factors have a negative effect on countrys progress by
making people dogmatic in their approach and narrow minded and selfish in outlook.
(b) Illiteracy and Ignorance:

Illiteracy and ignorance are supportive of poverty. By 2001, there were about 38 crore illiterates
in the country. Further, our defective educational system is incapable of generating employment
and there is no guarantee of job for the educated youths.
(c) Dominance of Caste and Joint Families:
Our caste system still has its hold on the caste members. The caste system compels its members
to stick on to the traditional and hereditary occupations of the caste. It does not give
encouragement to the caste members to take up to jobs of their choices. In the very same manner,
the joint families which are still dominant in the rural areas do not allow young members to take
initiative in making new adventures in the employment and economic spheres.
(v) Other Causes
1. Long Period of Foreign Rule:
India was under foreign rule for a very long period. The British who ruled India ruthlessly, had
systematically spoiled the basic economic structure of our land and destroyed the various arts,
crafts, cottage and small scale industries which we had previously. They exploited Indian
resources for the glory of Britain and made Indians parasites in several respects.
2. Climatic Factors:
Climate can also be a cause of poverty. The hot climate of India reduces the capacity of the
people to work, and hence, naturally, production cannot be increased in the desired quantity,
3. Wars and Threats of War:
India had to spend huge amount of money on wars which she had fought with China and
Pakistan. There is constant threat of war also. Hence huge amount of money is being spent on
our defence industry. About 15% to 25% of national income was spent previously for defence
purposes and it was reduced to 16.7% in 1989-90.
4. Defective Political System and Lack of Political Will:
Indian political system is very often condemned as corrupt, inefficient and defective. Unhealthy
competition among the political parties for power has many a times damaged our national
interests. Our political leaders lack nationalistic fervour and will power to face the challenges
that are confronting the nation.