20 years ago Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India had remarked that 90 per cent of the government funds were pilfered en route, and surely they are more innovative now. It means that only 10 per cent of funds, earmarked are percolated to the prospective beneficiaries in India. This phenomenon is not restricted to India and other Asian countries alone. Even in the United States, The conventional estimate is that 7 percent of government spending is lost to waste, fraud or abuse.

In India, the programmes for the ‘common man’ such as the NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) and the waiver of farm loans often become windfall for bureaucrats and the party cadres. Rs 70,000 crore (Rs 700 billion) for the NREGS, which, if we had truth-in-advertising, should be renamed ‘National Employment Guarantee Scheme for Party Cadres’, because 95 per cent of the funds ended up in their pockets.

Rs 70,000 crore for the waiver of farm loans, most of which went to rich landlords already flush with untaxed agricultural income that has led to a boom in consumption in villages. Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) spent on the corrupt, do-nothing bureaucracy.

Similarly in the United States of America, In the $787 billion in federal stimulus money in the wake of recession, a good amount has been pocketed by fraudsters but compared to India, their numbers are nothing but peanuts.