Corruption: A blight on India?

Many forms of the virus of corruption hold back India’s bright future. It was recognized by Nehru as a dangerous threat and has blighted successive governments. Corruption has never been higher up the national agenda and may determine the outcome of the coming national elections. It has a direct impact on the environment and the destruction of India's natural wealth. However the epidemiology of corruption is worldwide and many countries small and large suffer from comparable problems. Political funding, organized crime, corporate misbehavior and petty corruption scams feature across the globe, and are an increasing issue in the European Union and the United States. At this lecture Laurence Cockcroft will look at corruption in India in a global context, discuss successes in fighting corruption elsewhere and advance some thoughts on the situation in India. Protected by secrecy jurisdictions from Dubai to the Caribbean, the fruits of corruption are squirrelled away and lost to national economies. He will discuss the interface between corruption in India and the international environment and argue that there is much that can be shared in the fight against corruption - and that for India action at the international level (areas such as illicit corporate flows) is crucial.

About Mr. Laurence Cockcroft:

Laurence Cockcroft, is a co-founder of Transparency International, an NGO that fights corruption in a hundred countries worldwide. He was a former Chairman of its UK chapter, at a time when it pioneered the UK Bribery Act of 2011. He is an authority on the ways in which corruption grows and multiplies itself exponentially. He is also the author of 'Global Corruption: Money, Power and Ethics in the Modern World', just published in India by Viva.