Black Economy in India and Transnational Organized Crime: Undermining Democracy
Arun Kumar
1. Definitions
Illegality typically leads to the
generation of black market profits. The activities associated with it and the
profits generated from it constitute the black economy. Hence, the size of a
black economy represents the prevalence of illegality in a country. Illegality
can be committed either through legal activities or illegal activities. Legal
activities are those that are allowed by law (e.g., agriculture, finance,
construction) and produce social “goods.” Revenues from these activities are
counted as part of the national revenues. The implication is that they improve
the welfare of the citizens and make society better.
Illegal activities are not
permitted by law (e.g., smuggling, peddling of narcotic drugs, theft) and are
said to produce social “bads,” since they degrade the welfare of society, if
not also the individuals indulging in these activities. Profits from these activities
are not counted in national revenue totals. Such activities are linked to
criminal activities of various kinds (see Government of India 2011 for data on
crime in India). However, not all crime is linked to generation of profits, for
example murder or gender violence. Hence, the black economy will not capture
such crimes. Furthermore, crime linked to economic activities that generate
profits is often connected with organized crime, whether within countries or
across borders – the latter is referred to as transnational organized crime.
The black economy can be
understood as broadly reflecting illegality in an economy, even if it does not
capture all criminal activities within a society (Kumar 1999). In India, the
black economy pervades all sectors of the economy. Elite professions have also
been found to be involved, for example businessmen, politicians, bureaucrats,
police, legal representatives, medical personnel, chartered accountants, and
education professionals, among others.
The size of the black economy has
been rising since India’s independence in 1947. It has been estimated to have
consecutively increased over the years: it was 4 to 5 percent of GDP in
1955/1956 (Government of India 1956); 7 percent in 1970 (Government of India
1971); 21 percent in 1980/1981 (NIPFP 1985); 40 percent in 1995/1996 (Kumar
1999); per projections by this author, it was 50 percent in 2005/2006. Thus,
illegality and crime are constantly on the rise in the country, not only in
absolute terms but in relative terms. It has grown from being petty and
sporadic to becoming more organized (national and transnational).
Organized crime in India operates
within a multitude of areas: illegal forestry and mining; narcotic drugs
trafficking; gun-running; human trafficking; sex trade; illicit liquor making
and distribution; encroachment of public land; production of spurious medicines
and fake goods; adulteration of food items; malpractices in medical profession,
including the sale of blood and organs and other malpractices, such as recycling
of hospital waste; entertainment and film industry; hawala (an alternative remittance system that operates outside of
traditional financing structures); flight of capital; illegal financing of
trade; smuggling of goods, including gold and electronic items; and so on.
Underlying these illegalities is the “Triad” of the corrupt businessmen,
politicians, and the executive, which is made up of the bureaucracy, the
police, and the judiciary.
2. Causes, history, and
analysis
The black economy and illegality
have existed in all societies at some point. In India, it became systematic
during World War II, when shortages of essential items became critical.
Rationing of food was introduced but there were black market activities to
compensate. To escape detection, perpetrators bribed the bureaucracy and the
police. Inflation led to increases in the prices of property, meaning that
those without property found it difficult to get housing. The government
introduced rent control laws, which became a source of corruption in the
courts.
The British set up a civil
service to administer (keep control of) India. The public servant became the
public master with enormous power over the public, and this was used to extract
bribes. However, the bulk of the population was poor, self-employed, and worked
in agriculture. They had few public dealings, meaning that the level of
corruption and the black economy was negligible. The civil service was
accountable to the colonial masters. Because they were interested in efficient
control of the country, they did not allow corruption to grow. They also paid
the civil servants high salaries, as compared to the per capita incomes of
locals, and gave them many privileges to lessen the temptation for corruption.
There was a landlord class ruling
over the peasantry that extracted rent from the farmers on behalf of the
colonial masters. They were a part of the tiny colonial ruling elite and had
substantial powers, which were misused to extract money from the people they
ruled. They were a law unto themselves and could extract money from the
peasantry.
After independence, a political
class came to power and replaced the colonial ruling elite. They started the
task of development in a very poor country. They depended on the civil service
for governing the country and did not transform it into a public service that
was accountable to the people. The political class that emerged from the
national freedom movement was democratic in its aspirations, but its members
came from the country’s elite class and had feudal intentions. They thought of
themselves as rulers and not as representatives of the people.
Consequently, independent India
started with high aspirations but a weak democracy because the power was
transferred from the colonial masters to a relatively unaccountable political
class and a civil service that was accountable mostly to itself. As the
democratic aspirations of the national movement weakened, the political class
became more corrupt. The government of India (1956) talked about the need to
keep the black economy in check so that more resources could be raised for
development. It found businesses generating profits from black market
activities in all sectors of the economy.
The Indian national movement
understood that colonial rule was the source both of the poverty and the
helplessness of the common man in dealing with their problems of unemployment,
illiteracy, and so on. Therefore, it was decided that society as a whole had to
overcome these basic problems of the people and the state was given a large
role in economic matters. Furthermore, optimal utilization of resources
required central planning, which required licensing of capacity in industries.
This reinforced the role of the state in the economy.
Due to de-industrialization in
India during colonial rule, Indian capitalists were too small to provide
capital for the creation of the necessary infrastructure for transportation and
power, for example. They lacked the technology and capital to invest in basic
goods like metals and petroleum, or in capital goods manufacturing. The
corollary was that a large public sector was needed to support both the growth
of the private sector and the planning process. This required the mobilization
of savings in a country that was poor. Consequently, consumption had to be
restrained through taxation and limiting the production and importing of luxury
goods. Imports were limited so as to conserve the foreign exchange required to
import capital goods for development. A strategy of import substitution was adopted
to boost industry and high customs duties were introduced for this purpose.
In 1944, the Indian capitalist
class drew up a plan of industrialization in post-independence India that
contained the abovementioned elements of policy (Thakurdas 1944). These plans
were also incorporated in the industrial policy statements of 1948 and 1956.
However, what the capitalists agreed to collectively, they undid through their
private actions by fouling up policies through illegality. They cornered
licenses by bribing authorities and creating monopolies for economic gain. In
the various development activities and projects, corruption was introduced to
make extra profits. This was not feasible without the connivance of the
politicians and the bureaucracy, who were drawn into corruption. Luxury goods –
or those goods that faced high customs duties – were smuggled in.
As India developed, the size of
the middle class increased and shortages of basic goods (e.g., food, scooters,
cement) or basic services (e.g., telephone and railway reservations) appeared.
Queues formed for each of them, and soon thereafter black markets developed.
Businesses took advantage of these black markets and corruption spread to the
lower levels of society.
Big business in India realized
that manipulating policies required close proximity to political power. It
started exercising direct control over the political process by financing
political parties and individual candidates for legislatures. It also
increasingly interfered in appointments at the senior levels of the bureaucracy
in key ministries. The Triad proved useful for this purpose and it was mutually
convenient for the three arms of the Triad. The businessmen could manipulate
policies, whereas the other two could get the help of businessmen to invest
their ill-gotten gains.
Another aspect of colonial rule
helped to spread corruption – the policy of divide and rule. The end of
colonial rule left behind antagonisms and instability in India’s immediate
neighborhood, which helped illegality to spread. There have been several wars
and continuing communal tensions with
Pakistan; with China, there have been border disputes and strategic conflicts.
These realities have fostered terrorist/separatist movements in India’s border
states – Kashmir, Punjab, and in the northeast. In turn, they became areas for
smuggling, gun-running, counterfeit-currency trading, human trafficking, sex
trade, and so on.
India has had historically close
relations with Nepal and, therefore, open borders. Large-scale poverty in Nepal
and Bangladesh has spurred illegal activities in the border areas. The corrupt
monarchy in Nepal and the unstable political climate in Bangladesh led to the
spread of large-scale corruption. Ethnic problems emerged in Sri Lanka between
the dominant Sinhala community and the Tamils concentrated in the north. The
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam emerged to fight a civil war over three
decades. To finance its activities, it indulged in a wide array of
illegalities. Their links with Tamils in India and across the globe helped in
the proliferation of illegalities around the world.
Growing illegality in India was
also linked to the oil crisis and the sharp increase in the petro goods prices
in the 1970s. The sudden wealth in the oil-exporting countries led to large-scale
economic activities there, but India lacked the necessary skilled labor
(carpenters, plumbers, drivers, teachers, engineers, doctors), which they
imported from South Asia on a large scale. These migrants started sending money
back home to their families. This encouraged the spread of hawala internationally because the hawala operators provided cheap services and a premium on the money
sent through them. Simultaneously, this service also allowed Indian businesses
to send their capital abroad.
In 1991, India changed its
policies and made massive concessions to the private sector – whatever it had
been demanding in the 1980s was granted. Taxes were reduced, licensing was
eliminated, and imports were liberalized, and so on. The role of the public sector
and planning was minimized. With the arrival of the WTO in 1995, there was a
further opening up of the economy to foreign trade and capital. The amount of
illegality grew, and the nature of the black economy changed but it grew as
well. As the market economy grew, queues ended but money determined who would
get what. Anything could be imported, and the private sector allowed for the
production of luxury goods. Thus, shortages of telephones, automobiles,
televisions, and so on, disappeared, as did the black markets associated with
them.
But, as restraints on business
declined with the weakening of the state, business indulged in corruption in an
even bigger way. The Triad, already in place, started functioning differently
and shared the gains from corruption differently. Many politicians became
businessmen – openly or in names of their family members. Businessmen also
entered politics in larger numbers. Privatization and the establishment of the
infrastructure of the private sector (in public-private partnership mode)
offered new opportunities for making illegal gains by cornering resources like
land, forests, and mines. Greater participation by the private sector since
1991 in the education and health sectors has created enormous opportunities to
indulge in illegalities. The number of scams and the amount of money involved
per scam has grown exponentially since the 1990s (Kumar 2012).
In brief, systematic illegality
and corruption in the country has its roots in big business and the Triad it
created. This has led to the emergence of organized crime in the country. The
problems fostered at the borders with neighbors and the hawala links for flight of capital have enabled the linkage between
local illegality and transnational crime. Finally, the indiscriminate opening
up of the economy in 1991 has led to a further spread of illegality and crime.
3. Forms, cases, and
interfaces of Indian illegality
For the black economy to be 50
percent of GDP, as it is currently, it has to be both systematic and systemic.
Laws have to be systematically violated so that those in charge of maintaining
the law of the land can partake in violations of the law. For certain favors,
they will look the other way while businesses commit illegal activities. Take,
for instance, the way the police and the judiciary in India function.
Illegalities are to be checked by
the police, and the persons committing the illegal action should be brought to
justice through the courts. In India, presently there are 40 million cases in
the courts and they continue for years or decades (sometimes more than 30
years). The time in prison for many awaiting trial is longer than any sentence
they might have to serve if they are convicted for the crimes they were
supposed to have committed. Thus, in many jails, there are more people awaiting
trial than there are people who have been convicted.
The delays are due to the
widespread corruption in the courts and the non-accountability of the judges.
Judges postpone hearing cases for frivolous reasons. The legal profession is
also interested in such delays, since they collect fees on the basis of the
number of appearances in court. Often in routine cases – in which a decision
should come in less than a year – cases may drag on for more than five years.
This leads to a fivefold increase in the number of cases pending. The pressure
on the judges also increases. They may have to go through 50 cases in a
six-hour working day, meaning that they have an average of seven minutes per
case. Each case may come up for a hearing after a few months, meaning the judge
must refresh her memory, thereby taking up precious time and often resulting in
mistakes.
To smooth the work in the courts,
a bribe might be paid. For instance, a court bailiff may charge a party between
INR 1,000 (US$20) to INR 25,000 ($500) for having a property vacated by the
losing party. The local police, who are required to accompany the court bailiff,
charges separately. For the inspection of files, filing papers, and so on, an
off-the-books payment to the clerks may be required. Judges have also been
caught letting one of the parties to a case see whether the judgment suits
their needs. One cannot publicly talk about these matters due to the fear of
being hauled up for “contempt of court.”
The poor are mostly unable to
approach the courts for justice, since filing cases is expensive and the laws
are so opaque that often the poor who are not very literate do not understand
their complexity. Even if they do go to court against a stronger party, the
latter is able to bribe their way through the court and delay or subvert
justice. Often there is a nexus between the judges and the lawyers. The
well-off party hires a lawyer who is able to manipulate the legal system and
who can fix a case to appear before a judge of choice. To minimize this kind of
manipulation, the judge in a case is often changed. This has created its own
problems, sometimes resulting in situations where up to 8 judges hear a case
over a two-and-a-half-year period. This means each of the judges is unfamiliar
with the case and often postpones the case on frivolous grounds.
Powerful persons in politics,
business, organized crime, etc., can get cases against them thrown out by the
prosecution. This is done at the initial stage of investigation, whereby crucial
evidence is misplaced or not presented carefully so that the case fails in the
court. Thus, these people do not even need to use corruption in the courts to
obtain favorable decisions. Judges have often commented on the poor preparation
of cases by the police. The powerful are known to influence witnesses to change
their testimony. Threats – coupled with inordinate delays (the witnesses also
forget what they have seen or heard) – lead to the spoiling of cases against
the powerful people.
The result is that the members of
the Triad have contempt for the law and violate it with impunity. In India,
laws on paper differ substantially from how they are implemented due to the
judicial delays and manipulations by those in power. For instance, there are
laws against child labor, but these are circumvented in large parts of the
country, including in the cities. In such violations, the police play an
important part.
Illegality flourishes because the
police participate in the process. They collect a weekly or monthly sum (hafta) to allow the illegal activities
to continue. This money is collected from beggars in the streets, street
vendors, encroachers on public land, businessmen, sex workers, car thieves,
pick pockets, those doing illegal construction, and any other kind of illegal
activity. The post of the head of a police station (called thana) is auctioned. This person sets targets for the collection of
money for each of the “beat” constables. The more commercial activity or the
higher the level of illegality in the jurisdiction of a police station, the
more money collected. The money is then shared right up to the top (political
bosses) (Kumar 1999). At every level, half the money collected is kept and the
rest is passed on. Since the pyramid narrows steeply, a lot of money goes up to
the few at the top.
The hafta from illegal activities is also collected by the local
municipal officers and the local politicians. Thus, a substantial part of the
earnings of a poor person is siphoned away by these officials and the politicians.
The hafta results in linkages between
the criminals and the officials. For instance, the pickpocket gets protection
from the police and no new pickpocket can encroach on their territory.
Organized crime is a party to this payment of hafta and it flourishes because of the official protection it
receives.
In India, since land in urban
areas is expensive, relative to per capita incomes, a large number of people
migrating annually to the cities cannot afford any kind of formal housing. So
the migrants either become homeless and sleep under overpasses, bridges, etc.;
or they encroach on public land with the consent of the police and local
politicians; or they crowd into existing slums, most of which have various
degrees of illegality associated with them. Thus, with illegal acquisition of
their shelter, they tend to fall into the grip of criminals. Since they need
income, the family members at times get into illegal work, like bootlegging,
sex trade, and so on. Organized crime gangs use their unstable living
conditions and poverty to recruit workers for illegal work.
In private professional
educational institutions, students pay for admissions (called capitation fees).
In case of medical education, the capitation fee can be up to $100,000. The
situation is similar in the case of engineering, management, and other
professional courses. These institutions are often run by politicians and
businessmen. On the pretext of providing social service, these institutions are
allotted land at low prices and granted concessions. The involvement of
politicians guarantees quick government approval.
Software- and information-related
services have experienced a boom in India since the mid 1990s. These lend
themselves to under- and over-invoicing and, therefore, to the flight of
capital from the country. During the dot-com boom, many fake companies floated
initial public offerings on the stock market and they disappeared with the
public’s money. The recent scandal involving Satyam Computer Services* is
instructive in learning about the various kinds of illegalities that such
software companies can indulge in: under-invoicing; registering in tax havens;
creating fictitious employment records; diverting funds to other companies
owned by the same owner; funding politicians; buying real estate; and so on.
*Satyam was one of the
high-flying software companies of India and an exemplary one, according to
the government and the business community. It was controlled by the highly
respected Raju family of Andhra Pradesh. In January 2008, Mr. Raju of Satyam,
the chairperson, stunned everyone when he admitted to committing massive
fraud against the public over the years. Apparently, the company was
defrauded of Rs 7,000 crore ($1.5 billion) but the final tally could be
larger. The loss to the shareholders and employees was a multiple of this
sum.
Mr. Raju claimed that Satyam
was operating with margins of 3 to 4 percent, when for comparable software
companies, they were in the range of 25 percent. Was Mr. Raju lying under the
auspices of telling the truth? The puzzle is that Satyam should have had
higher profit margins, but its owner, Mr. Raju, claimed that it had lower
margins, thereby willingly implicating himself in fraud. Was he trying to
cover up a bigger fraud?
In India, there have been
concessions in taxation on profits from exports. So, it may pay to divert
profits from a company that is not
entitled to tax concessions to another group company that is entitled to tax concessions, and
thereby save on tax payments. Mr. Raju was siphoning funds from Satyam to
sister companies dealing in real estate.
To take advantage of the
provisions for exports, they have to be over-invoiced. Hence, more foreign
exchange has to be brought into the country than has been earned. This way, undeclared
wealth held outside the country or profits of other companies transferred out
of the country through hawala are
brought back – that is, reverse hawala.
Satyam tried to buy its sister companies
at high and inflated prices. So, its fictitious bank accounts, worth Rs 7,000
crores, would have been drawn down and money transferred to the owners of the
sister companies, that is, to themselves, and then there would have been no
one to ask where the money went. So, using book transfers, the earlier transferring
out of funds would have been covered up and the false entries of the bank
balances and fixed deposits reversed/ set right.
Satyam was forced to reverse its
decision to buy the sister companies by the investment bankers who approached
SEBI (stock exchange regulator) with the story of the non-existent balance in
the banks. There was little time to bring back other undeclared funds, and
perhaps due to the global crisis of 2008, they became stuck. Since the funds
did not exist in the Satyam bank accounts, Mr. Raju had to cover up by saying
that the actual profitability of Satyam was lower and that he had been
inflating profits for years.
The Satyam affair points to the
scheming practices adopted by crooked Indian businesses – siphoning profits,
fudging muster rolls, the cozy relations with politicians and bureaucrats,
and finally, manipulating bankers, “independent” auditors, and “independent”
directors. Mr. Raju’s admission has brought into question the notion of a “respectable”
or “honest” businessman.
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As already mentioned above, hawala is active in India. It is not
regulated by the Central Bank. It is used to transfer funds within the country
and outside of it. Since it deals purely in cash, large sums of money are moved
from the premises where hawala
operates. The police and the intelligence agencies know of these places, but
they do not act because of the high-level political protection available to the
hawala operators. The top politicians
in power also know of them, since they use this channel, but they do not act against
these hawala operators either out of
self-interest. Thus, what is known privately is not known officially. The hawala channels are used by organized
crime units to transfer money around the country and outside of it. Terrorists,
drug dealers, and others use these channels because of the anonymity they
provide.
In summary, due to existence of
the Triad, all kinds of illegal activities and crime flourish in India. The
common man is helpless in the face of these powerful people.
4. Global economic flows and
routes
Local criminal activities
described above have been linked to transnational crimes through terrorism; the
printing and circulation of counterfeit currencies; the operation of hawala; the production and distribution
of narcotic drugs; arms-trafficking; and the smuggling of electronic items,
gold, and gems. As discussed in section II, in all these cases, the neighboring
countries – and at times their secret services – are involved. The profits from
these activities help finance terrorism and destabilize the nation.
Myanmar was a closed nation till
recently and there has been much ethnic conflict. Thus, it was easy to move
narcotic drugs through these territories into India’s northeast, where
separatist movements were taking place. Similarly, Bangladesh has been another
porous border through which human trafficking have been taking place and where
terrorist movements have found sanctuary. They also became conduits for
organized crime.
Conflict in Afghanistan since the
beginning of the 1970s has led to power rivalries. The Western nations armed
the Taliban – fundamentalist Muslims – to fight the Soviet forces that entered
Afghanistan to help the left-leaning regime that came to power by dethroning
the King there. Soon, Afghanistan became the Vietnam of the Soviets and they
had to eventually withdraw, leaving the Taliban in charge. But by then,
Afghanistan was awash with weapons supplied by the West. Afghanistan was also
known for its production of narcotic drugs. When the central power weakened and
regional warlords emerged, the Taliban smuggled weapons and narcotic drugs to
enrich themselves.
A nexus emerged between the
Taliban and the Muslim fundamentalists in Pakistan. This impacted the
separatist movement in Kashmir and also became a major source of financing
Muslim fundamentalism in India. In the process, India became a route for
transnational crime. This was facilitated by a corrupt bureaucracy and the
police.
An amnesty was given to smugglers
in 1983 so that they could come into the mainstream. But this led to the entry
of criminals into politics, or at least their more active participation in
politics. Before they had financed politicians but remained largely in the
background. The Triad now had criminals in it – either the businessman or the politician
in the Triad had criminal backgrounds. As criminals entered the legislatures,
the rule of law weakened. They manipulated the police, the bureaucracy, and the
judiciary to get favorable decisions and also interfered more blatantly in
decision-making.
Smugglers developed links with
organized crime abroad to carry on their activities systematically. These links
also required them to be in touch with hawala
operators, who did not distinguish between clean (but illegal) money and dirty
money. So they transferred the money of terrorists just as often as that of
businessmen under-invoicing exports. In fact, the gold smugglers often needed
foreign currency to buy gold for smuggling into India, and they got it from
narcotic drug rings that needed to send funds to finance their activities in
India. Thus, many inter-linkages developed.
Smuggling was driven by the
chance to make easy money, since custom duties were high for the import of
luxury goods, liquor, tobacco products, gold, and gems. It required corrupting
the customs officials and the politicians. Airports and ports turned into dens
of corruption with all kinds of illegal activities taking place. Very complex
importing rules were deliberately set up so that the misclassification of goods
and services was possible. The threat of harassment is an important driver for
the willingness to bribe the official machinery.
In India, laws on paper differ
substantially from the way law is practiced. Being in power implies the ability
to offer favors for utilitarian considerations. For instance, traffic rules are
violated with impunity, especially by those in power. When the average citizen
gets caught, they offer a small bribe to the police to be let off. Hence,
traffic on the roads is chaotic. A driving license can be obtained without
taking a test. This is symptomatic of all rules and laws in the country. The
honest get harassed while the dishonest make money or jump the queues.
It is the Triad that has
facilitated systematic illegality in the country and – as it has strengthened
over time – it has spread. The individual citizen is not able to resist and is
more willing to make bribes and commit illegal acts. The Triad takes advantage
of this by pushing for more illegality. In the process, people have moved from
collective action to individual action and weakened democracy in the country.
With the Triad functioning unhindered, international organized crime gangs have
also found it easy to penetrate into India and set up operations.
5. Consequences for victims,
outlook and impacts on the rule of law
The consequences of the growing
black economy have been that development has been set back due to widespread
policy failure. Kumar (2005) shows that the Indian economy has been losing 5
percent rate of growth since the mid 1970s due to the growing black economy.
Today, the Indian economy could already have become the second largest economy
in the world. Income distribution is highly skewed against the poor, and this
is having an adverse social impact. India has the largest number of poor people
in the world as well as malnourished children and women, illiterate people, and
sick people.
The state is considered to be
weak and unable to carry out its mandate. The institutions of democracy (e.g.,
legislature, judiciary) have been weakened due to all of this and there is a
feeling that the nation lacks social justice. Thus, today, every section of
society is trying to gain something at the expense of others. This has resulted
in massive conflicts in society and often chaotic conditions. The political
structures are badly fragmented, whereby there are a few hundred political
parties, each jostling for its space and share of power, which is exercised not
for the national good but for the section it represents. Thus, faith in the nation
has weakened.
The poor face a criminal
environment and live insecure lives. Their children often engage in various
kinds of illegal activities and get into drugs, smoking, and other addictive
behaviors. Women engage in other kinds of illegal activities and have to bear a
double burden of taking care of the home as well as working outside.
Black economies lead to both
higher costs of production with lower quality and to environmental damage.
Thus, the rate of inflation is higher than it need be and health costs rise due
to increased levels of diseases and low capacities to fight them. Corruption in
the medical profession adds to health costs, and as a result, the poor often
fall below the poverty line when treating a major illness in the family.
Tackling the black economy is the
key to making a dent in crime, whether national or transnational. Since India’s
independence, dozens of committees and commissions have looked at the problem
of the black economy (and its various aspects) in the country. They have made
thousands of suggestions and hundreds have been implemented: reducing tax
rates; reducing controls and regulations; demonetization of high denomination
currency; voluntary disclosure schemes; bearer bond schemes; acquisition of
undervalued property; and so on. There are already enough laws to check
corruption; the problem is that they are not implemented. Intelligence about
organized crime exists, but no action is taken since top businessmen and
politicians are involved. So the problem is not a technical one, and the size
of the black economy has increased in spite of the steps taken to check its
growth. The issue is one of political will, which is non-existent.
It is crucial to have political
movements that would strengthen democracy and bring about accountability among
the members of the Triad. Movements on the right to information, judicial
accountability, the right to education, the right to food, and the right to
housing are all needed to strengthen democracy and bring about accountability
in the political process. Movements centered around these issues have been
created in the last two decades, and they may eventually change things for the
better.
References
Government of India. 2011. Crime in India 2010. Ministry of Home
Affairs, National Crime Records Bureau.
Government of India. 1971. Direct taxes enquiry report.
Chairperson: Wanchoo.
Government of India. 1956. Direct tax reform: Report of a survey.
Chairperson: Kaldor.
Kumar, A. 1999. The black economy in India. New Delhi:
Penguin.
———. 2005. India’s Black Economy: The Macroeconomic
Implications. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. Vol. 28, No.2. August
2005. Pp 249-263.
———. 2012. Indian economy since independence: Tracing the dynamics of colonial
disruption in society. Forthcoming.
NIPFP (National Institute of
Public Finance and Policy). 1985. Aspects
of black economy in India. New Delhi: NIPFP.
Thakurdas, P. 1944. A plan of economic development for India.
Bombay: The Commercial Printing Press.
