361–370 of 456 posts
If building something on agricultural land is hard, it is good: it is called agricultural for a reason. Maybe buying a parcel of industrial or commercial land would have ended up cheaper?
Author of the article here: All the land in India is agricultural by default. Except in some desert states.
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Author of the article here: All the land in India is agricultural by default. Except in some desert states.
Really? Lots of land parcels are identified as Non-agricultural.
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The paperwork is an attempt(usually misguided) to stop the corruption. The idea is that if you have to account and document all actions you will have act in the proscribed manner and not in a way that benefits you. This usually fails for the reason you posted. I am not really sure how you are supposed to stop corruption once it gets rooted in your society. It is a vile and subversive menace that turns every one into…
The podcast "The Rest Is Politics" did an interesting interview with the Prime Minister of Albania recently, where he made the argument that the best way to deal with corruption is to get rid of the paperwork altogether, and basically make government services so easy to access that corruption and bribery wasn't necessary in the first place. So he'd been putting a lot of work into digitising as much as possible, makin…
In Norway this road fund fee is collected automatically by the insurance company. This is obviously easier for the user (zero paperwork), less work for the state, and prevents scam artists from duping people.
And back on the subject of registering a company: in Norway this is done online and takes minutes.
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I am a fan of the Singapore anti-corruption method of paying bureaucrats a lot of money. That way they don't have to have corruption side hustles and you can attract good talent to these positions. Somehow this is more unpopular than widespread political corruption.
I'd be sceptical given just how greedy corrupt bureaucrats can be. There's not much to stop a crook being both officially well paid and totally corrupt.
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I'd be sceptical given just how greedy corrupt bureaucrats can be. There's not much to stop a crook being both officially well paid and totally corrupt.
Yes, but the position will be taken by a honest guy already.
A fish rots from the head down.
and
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
and
Nothing disinfects better than sun light.
IMHO they all apply when dealing with public servants in unchecked positions of power.
~5 years ago, I hired three Indian developers. They asked me if we could set up an Indian legal entity, so that they could just get regular salaries in India with tax payments, deductions etc taken care of. I agreed and we got it done. One of the worst business-decisions of my life. The amount of red tape, stupid rules, corruption, signatures, stamps, showing up physically in a certain office etc etc... Mindblowing.…
I came to the comments to warn exactly this, perhaps more emphatically. Do not set up a legal entity in India. It will become a never-ending void where money and time go to die. The bureaucracy is hilariously inept and bloated, and if you are not willing to pay the bribes or for some entity to navigate the systemic corruption on your behalf, you will end up in OP's situation. Source: hired many Indian developers in r…
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Well for small payments we need a simple tax box, no country is doing that, all countries require a ton of paperwork for each new “employee”.
Why not just have one payment system to rule them all run by the government that is required by law for all payment of employee-driven services? Businesses could save a TON of money on payroll systems and HR. A government-run system--presumably--would take care of withholding the correct amount of taxes and also making sure the business/person paying a salary never has to worry about running afoul of the law (having…
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US citizens bribing foreign officials can be convicted of a felony under (I think it is) The Foreign Corrupt Practices act. Whether DOJ chases down three-developer scale stuff, or has only the staff for multi-zillion class bribes, I don't know.
If you are paying them to do something they're supposed to do but refuse to do in a timely manner, that may be legal. It's called a facilitating payment or grease payment, and is an exception to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Ask a real lawyer, obviously.
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Exactly. This is what the rest of the world usually says on the first encounter with "tips culture" in the US. As I see it, cultures are different and one thing that is considered an absolute taboo in one culture might be customary in another. Tips in the US are customary yet at the same time they are offensive in Japan. Bribes are killing the economy in my country yet it makes economy moving in India. PS: I personal…
> Exactly. This is what the rest of the world usually says on the first encounter with "tips culture" in the US. I think my shock was greater when I discovered that lobbying in the US means "literal legal bribery". In a lot of the western world that word it means things "having meetings" and perhaps "organizing PR campaigns". Straight up giving money to politicians is against the law.
These are just some recent examples of federal politicians who have run afoul of these laws, but they apply at all levels of government, as well as to staff (both campaign staff and the official staff of elected officials).
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Cunningham
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_D._Hunter
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Jackson_Jr.
[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Grimm_(politician)
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India is huge. Could there be a district with enough integrity that it can become the place to establish a company in India?
I think the state of Bihar is trying to do that (just armchair analysis from reading the news)