India has the worst bureaucracy in Asia, says a Hong Kong based rating agency

Hong Kong, August 24 (NIA): According to the latest report of the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd., which ranks bureaucracies across Asia on a scale from one to 10, with 10 being the worst possible score, India has scored 9.21.

Thus, India has the worst bureaucracy in the Asian continent, faring worse than  Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and China. It is down two places since the last survey.

The report said India’s bureaucracy is responsible for many complaints businessmen have about India, such as a lack of infrastructure and corruption.

The report said that Indian bureaucrats are rarely held accountable for wrong decisions.

“This gives them [bureaucrats] terrific powers and could be one of the main reasons why average Indians as well as existing and would-be foreign investors perceive India’s bureaucrats as negatively as they do.”

Singapore remains the country with the best bureaucracy, with a rating of 2.25. It is followed by Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia.

The report said that India has a government that came to power in part because it promised to do a better job of fighting corruption than the government it was replacing. People had great hopes that the new government would be effective in reducing corruption, but they have been disappointed.

In India, current perception scores on corruption are still better than what prevailed during the previous government’s term of office, especially its final years, but there has been a deterioration in perceptions over the past 12 months because the new government has not been as successful in fighting corruption as people had hoped.

Even though the economy has picked up considerable momentum, graft remains a hot button, and the Vyapam scandal  has hit especially close to home for many Indians on just how systemic the problem of graft really is at virtually all levels. It is seen as being routine.

“This is perhaps why India has the worst score of any country covered by our survey this year, down two places from last year.”