“India Is Very Cheating”

I didn’t say it, my driver did. In his charming broken English, he was warning me about cab drivers trying to rip me off (little too late for that). As I learned though, Vijay’s view is slightly more nuanced. He went on to say, “educated gentlemen – you believe, not educated – no believe.” This pretty much comports with my experience so far. Most Indians are helpful and friendly towards foreigners, but a few see dollars signs all over me and are unscrupulous about affecting the wealth transfer to which they feel entitled.

From a macro perspective India does have some significant problems with corruption, particularly in the public sector, with officials keen to extract their share of the development dividend. India was ranked 85th on Transparency International’s corruption rankings, slipping 13 places in the last two years. That puts them behind the likes of Cuba, China, Senegal, Ghana, and Thailand. Not exactly great company. India also ranked 122th in the ease of doing business survey, behind Russia and Pakistan. They were second to last, at 180th out of 181, in terms of enforcing contracts.

Fortunately, my dealings with government officials are limited to asking policemen for directions and I am not entering into any contracts. As for the cab drivers, I figure the Indian concept of Karma has their number and that they are destined to be reincarnated as gas station bathrooms.