Corruption - A way of life in India

It seems that the trend in India is that every political family has a target of amassing wealth.

Recent examples include :

Illegal iron ore mining scam in Karnataka

2G spectrum scam by A. Raja of DMK

I think corruption is an acceptable way of life in India. Even common man has to participate in corrupt activities because of the way things work. For example if some one is caught violating the traffic the traffic cop pesters the violator for money. Since the violator sees an easy way out he pays the traffic cop instead of paying a fine or going to the court (where the case could drag on) and worse still the violator is not sure what he violated because the traffic system in itself is so messed up. A common denominator in all these instances are systemic failure; let us analyze the process/ systems that fail in this simple example:

• Traffic system - Absence of any traffic rules and its implementation


• Traffic policing - Lack of training, thankless job and low pay and self- esteem


• The motorist - Unsure about traffic rules, lack of respect for the law and possibly could have procured license illegally


• Civilian courts - Unclear policies and punishment / fines for traffic violators
  


• Roads / Highway department -Bad infrastructure and lack of proper road markers,signals etc

If such for such a simple example we can actually point out at least 5 systemic failures then really think about how the rot has spread across our society and systems.

Solutions... any one...