Public awareness and reforms expected about various scams in India that nurtures business environment.
Anitha, J. ; Natarajan, Nikitha
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Introduction
In our daily life, most of us must have been a witness to or a
victim of the corruption thriving in some or the other part of the
country. It could be in the form of a taxi-driver manipulating the meter
to jack-up the reading or a government officer taking bribery to
promptly transfer your file to the next department or even yourself
offering bribe to a traffic police on breaking a signal. Perhaps
corruption has grown considerably through years (Gill, 1998, Sabale,
2011, Sharma, 2012) which is a main concern for the ethical and moral
health of the country and the citizens. This in turn has numerous
social, economic and political impacts.
An average Indian citizen is hard working and diligent, but it is
the people in charge of the system or with whom the power lie, that act
as a cancer spreading the venom, slowing down progress. But, somewhere
down the line, we ourselves are responsible for allowing and being taken
for a ride by these people. However, it is during a multi-thousand crore
scam, that a tax-payer actually realises the heartburn of being cheated
from his valued contribution of funds towards the development and
well-being of the nation.
Political and bureaucratic corruptions in India are major concerns.
A 2005 study conducted by Transparency International in India found that
more than 15 percent of Indians had first-hand experience of paying
bribes or influence peddling to successfully complete jobs in public
office. In 2010 India was ranked 87th out of 178 countries in
Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. From
1948 through 2008 India lost a total of $213 billion in illicit
financial flows (or illegal capital flight). These illicit financial
flows were generally the product of: corruption, bribery and kickbacks,
criminal activities, and efforts to shelter wealth from the
country's tax authorities. According to the data provided by the
Swiss Banking Association Report (2006), India has more black money than
the rest of the world combined.
India has been rocked by a spate of scams in the recent past. Scams
in India have happened in various scales and in various levels that has
harmed the nation in different ways (Sabale, 2011, Vittal, 2012). Off
late there has been a continuous buzz on the issues, involvement of the
media and awareness of the public regarding the same. Large scale
corruption scams have been uncovered in the media regularly over the
past years. Many scams have contributed to the growth of civil movement
against corruption in India. Corrupt practices are often interpreted as
signs of power. In view of the above facts, it was intended to
understand the level of public awareness about various scams that has
taken place in India.
An average Indian citizen is hard working and diligent, but it is
the people in charge of the system or with whom the power lie, that act
as a cancer spreading the venom, slowing down progress.
Literature Review
In a study by Sharma and Panigrahi (2012), it has been found that,
with an upsurge in financial accounting fraud in the current economic
scenario experienced, financial accounting fraud detection (FAFD) has
become an emerging topic of great importance for academic, research and
industries (Wadhwa and Pal, 2012). Economic Times of India (2007)
reported that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) created
a database of all participants in the bourses, a move that helped the
regulator to keep a watch on traders, investors and intermediaries
operating in the market.
In a study (Barua and Varma, 1993), on the activities of the scams
reported that press reports first appeared in April 1992, indicating
that there was a shortfall in Government Securities held by the State
Bank of India (SBI). Investigations revealed that it was just the tip of
an iceberg which came to be called the securities scam. It involved 21
misappropriation of funds to the tune of over INR 3500 crore (about $1.2
billion). The scam had engulfed top executives of large nationalised
banks, foreign banks, financial institutions, brokers, bureaucrats and
politicians. The functioning of the money market and the stock market
had been thrown into disarray. The scam had generated such immense
public interest that it had become a permanent feature on the front
pages of newspapers. A large number of agencies, namely, the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI), the Central Bureau of Investigation (Indian CBI),
the Income Tax Department, the Directorate of Enforcement and the Joint
Parliamentary Committee (JPC) all set out to investigate the various
aspects of the scam. The government set up the Janakiraman Committee to
probe the scam, which broke out between April, 1991, and June, 1992. At
least 10 commercial banks were involved, including the Standard
Chartered Bank, the SBI and National Housing Bank (an RBI subsidiary).
The study (Barua and Varma, 1993), also examined the impact of the
scam and found out that it resulted in a sharp fall in the share prices.
The Indian Capital Market listed companies have not monitored their
performance in any form, for a very long time. Apart from insurance
scams, a number of political scams have bought a great shame to India.
Some of them include, Chopper scam (2013), Sharadha group chit fund scam
(2013), coal block allocation scam (2012), Tatra truck scam (2011), 2G
spectrum scam (2010), Common wealth games scam (2010), Satyam computer
services scandal (2009), fodder scam (1996), etc.
It was ascertained by another study (Sharma and Panigrahi, 2012),
that with an upsurge in financial accounting fraud in the current
economic scenario experienced, financial accounting fraud detection
(FAFD) has become an emerging topic of great importance for academic,
research and industries. The failure of internal auditing system of the
organisation in identifying the accounting frauds has lead to use of
specialised procedures to detect financial accounting fraud,
collectively known as forensic accounting. Data mining techniques are
providing great aid in financial accounting fraud detection, since
dealing with the large data volumes and complexities of financial data
are big challenges for forensic accounting (Mehta and Mathur, 2007,
Singh, 2012).
Apart from above scams, Insurance frauds are driving up the overall
costs of insurers and premiums for policyholders (Chudgar and Asthana,
2013). It encompasses a wide range of illicit practices and illegal
acts. Insurance companies have witnessed increase in the number of fraud
cases since couple of years.
However, one positive happening in the midst of these scams is the
increasing awareness of these scams among the public. A survey by Ernst
and Young (2012) has shown that at least two thirds of their respondents
said that scams and corporate frauds were unearthed because of
legislations such as the Right to Information Act and Public Interest
Litigation. The survey revealed that atleast three-fourth of the
respondents was aware of anti-corruption legislation in India--the
Prevention of Corruption Act. But they weren't much clear about
anti-graft legislation internationally, though most of them worked for
MNCs.
It is during a multi-thousand crore scam, that a tax-payer actually
realises the heartburn of being cheated from his valued contribution of
funds towards the development and well-being of the nation.
The study also considers comparisons of scams across different
countries. Studies (Chawla, Khanna and Chen, 2012, Gaskill et al., 1993)
have shown that there is significant difference in critical success
factors in small business that include scams, problems in unmanaged
growth and expansion, inadequate planning, ineffective working capital
management and unforgiving competitive environment.
In view of the above facts, it was intended to study the level of
awareness of scams among the public and the various rectifications
preferred by them. The literature review was helpful to identify certain
key factors that would have an impact on the overall public opinion of
scams that will impact the business environment. The main variables
identified for the study includes general public opinion, impact of
media, comparison with other countries and impact of scams on public.
The paper proposes the following objectives:
1. To identify the most preferred media and the mode of news
2. To know the impact of media in revealing scams among public
3. To know the overall public opinion about scams in India and the
main factors that explains the same significantly
4. To know the expectations of public from Indian government
Research Design
Type of Research Design
The Research design is Descriptive and Causal in nature. It
describes the level of impact of media, awareness of scams through
media, opinion regarding comparing India with other countries with
respect to scams and the overall public opinion regarding scams. The
study also focus on the contirbution of various influences on overall
public opinion of scams and hence finds the major source aiding in
public awareness of scams.
Data Collection
The basic idea about the study and overall outline about the
subject was collected from secondary sources, i.e., websites and other
research papers. The questionnaire was framed based on the literature
collection. The primary data was collected from about 100 respondents on
various aspects of awareness of scams. A sample size of around 100 was
chosen. Data was collected from around 44 males and 56 females. Of this
about 92 responses were valid and were considered for analysis. All
participants are educated with a minimum educational qualification of
HSE. Questionnaire was used as the research tool to communicate with the
public.
Many scams have contributed to the growth of civil movement against
corruption in India.
Analysis Techniques Used
Descriptive statistics and Friedman's test was used to
understand the media through which people get aware of scams. Two way
ANOVA was used to find out the effectiveness of media in revealing scams
to public, with respect to their residence. The contribution of various
independent variables including impact of scams, impact of media,
opinion and comparison of India with other countries on overall public
opinion was measured using Regression. The study also had options to
discuss and appreciate the various economic, judicial, health and
agricultural reforms that the public expect from the Indian government.
Results
Preferred Media by the Public
It was intended to find the most preferred medium of information
awareness by the public in general. Among social media, newspapers, chat
with neighbors, television and radio, it was found that the most
preferred media by public to update themselves was the newspaper (about
40 percent) as seen in Table I. Newspaper being the oldest media is
found to be quite popular and more impactful in people looking for
information. The ease, the availability and the amount of information
might have had this advantage of being preferred the most. The second
most preferred medium was social networking sites (18 percent). Social
media is a powerful force, reaching millions of people. The
user-friendly design of the major social networking groups encourages
users from all age groups and skill sets to communicate and to share
information.
With reference to the type of news that people preferred to read
with respect to scams, Friedman's test was done to see which type
was ranked the first (Table II). People would get their news from
'Regional news' and then the 'national news'. The
least rank was given to sports news, though there were scams in the
sports arena to a mightier level.
The significance value (p=0.000) indicates that the test is valid.
"The National News" is given second importance by public and
it indicates that the public are aware about the various national scams
that have taken place in India.
The failure of internal auditing system of the organisation in
identifying the accounting frauds has lead to use of specialised
procedures to detect financial accounting fraud, collectively known as
forensic accounting.
Regional news refers to news coverage of events in a local context.
Regional news largely covers the local sports, local crime and justice,
local weather, local business and economy, local events, local education
and local politics.
National news, however, tend to cover a wider range of content,
including news concerning specialised institutions of wide-ranging
national power or influence, such as, stock markets, national sports
competitions, national political and intergovernmental events, regional
environmental events, media/entertainment events, science/technology
events, air traffic/aviator transport events and defense/security
events.
Impact of Media in Revealing Scams among Public
The objective of the analysis was to find out the effectiveness of
media in revealing scams to public, with respect to their location of
residence. Along with the location, it was also intended to find if both
gender and location of the person together had any significant
difference in the role of media in revealing scams. The main aim to go
for this analysis is to find out if media is having a relatively lesser
impact on rural area when it comes to location and on women when it
comes to gender.
Here the dependent variable is average impact of scams on general
public. Table III shows that there is no main effect of gender (p=0.385)
on revealing scams through media as well as there is no main effect of
residence (p=0.223) on revealing scams through media. Also, there is no
significant interaction effect of gender and residence (0.379) together
on perception revealing scams through media. This indicates that the
factors gender and location of residence are not the major factors that
determine the awareness of scams through the media. The table confirms
that, irrespective of the gender and residence, people are influenced by
media. This shows the reach out of media in the present days. People get
to be aware of scams irrespective of their residences, whether they are
remote areas or in heart of cities. The study has included people from
rural and semi urban areas in considerable number to consider this
result to be significant in reflecting the reach of media.
To Know the Overall Public Opinion about Scams in India
The study also focused on finding out what were the major factors
that determine the awareness of public related to scams. The factors
that were measured includes impact of scams (IS), impact of media (IM),
opinion of public regarding the scams (O) and comparison of India with
other countries related to scams (C). Hence it was intended to find out,
what is the level of impact of these factors on overall public opinion
on scams. Regression analysis was used to find out the level of
prediction of these independent variables on the dependent variable of
public opinion on scams. This would help us to determine which factor
plays a major role in influencing people's opinion on scams.
Regression analysis indicate that the adjusted [R.sup.2] is 0.732
which depicts that 73.2 percent of any variance or change in the
dependent variable (overall public opinion) is explained by the
independent variables, namely, general public opinion, impact of media,
comparison with other countries and impact of scams on public. In order
to know the individual impact of these variables on the awareness, the
test statistics were observed (Table IV).
The regression equation obtained from the above model is
Overall Opinion = -1.069 + 0.239 (general public opinion) + 0.335
(impact of media) + 0.135 (comparison of India with other countries) +
0.497 (impact of scams on general public).
This shows that the overall awareness and public opinion depends on
the impact of scams ([beta] = 47.1 percent, t = 5.66, p = 0.000) to the
major extent. About 47 percent depends on the impact that these scams
have created. This may include the awareness among people in terms of
increasing inequalities, increasing poverty, reducing law and order in
the country and the instable governance. Similarly the next important
factor that influences the public awareness is the impact created by
media ([beta] = 25.8 percent, t = 3.1, p = 0.003), which is quite
obvious as media is the main source of information to people regarding
such scams. The values show the levels of impact created by these two
factors are statistically significant. The impact created by media is a
recent phenomenon, wherein the news channels and the news regarding
scams, the continuous highlights regarding the probe of the scams in
media have increased considerably in the last decade.
Scams have a damaging impact on India's growth story. The
money which was actually meant to be utilised in public interest is now
an integral part of bank accounts of dishonest people. If this whopping
amount would have been executed in proper way, the scenario of our
country would have been completely different. The implication of all
these scams in terms of political stability, economic sentiments and
image of the country, boasts of world's largest democracy and one
of the fastest growing economies in the world (world financial review).
Corruption in the country continues to be a problem tearing into the
fabric of governance. There is corruption in all spheres, and people are
adversely affected in their day-to-day life. Corruption is growing by
leaps and bounds in India. As the nation grows, the corrupt invent new
methods of cheating the Government and public.
The media plays a major role in keeping the citizenry abreast of
current events and raising awareness of various issues in any society.
The media have traditionally been understood to refer to the
printed press as well as radio and television broadcasters. In recent
years however, the definition has become broader, encompassing new media
including online journalism, and social media. Citizen journalism is
widely gaining traction, including in countries where traditional media
is either controlled or strictly regulated. The media maintains a high
level of professionalism, accuracy and impartiality in their coverage.
Media acts as a crucial watchdog revealing information from any part of
the world at any point of time. The media also acts as a platform for
interaction with the public. Traditional media include radio,
television, newspapers and magazines while new media consists of the
Internet, mobile phones, social media such as blogs and micro-blogs
(such as Twitter and Sina Weibo), social networking websites like
Facebook, video-sharing sites such as YouTube, and others. The media
plays a major role in keeping the citizenry abreast of current events
and raising awareness of various issues in any society. It also has an
extremely significant impact on the public's views and way of
thinking. The media is the primary means through which public opinion is
shaped and at times manipulated.
Expectations of Public from Indian Government
India's economic growth has slowed dramatically in recent
years as policy making at the central government level seized up. The
citizen has ever higher expectations of public services. There is an
overwhelming perception among the public that public services need to
improve. The objective was to find out the expectations of public from
our Indian government. The various reforms that were discussed include
economic, judicial, health and agricultural reforms. The opinion of the
public with respect to the above reforms is discussed in the following
section.
Economic Reforms
The past few years have seen major changes in India's economic
policies marking a new phase in India's development strategy. There
are obviously critical issues in designing a reform programme. They
become particularly important when all the elements of an optimal
package cannot be fully implemented simultaneously owing to social or
political constraints. The objective of the analysis is to find the
various economic reforms that the public expect from our Indian
government.
It was found that majority of the responses were to 'bring
black money back' and to 'create jobs' that would reform
the economic state of the country. Further responses that were found to
be important and have drawn attention of the respondents include
lowering of taxes, to end unwanted expenditure, allocate resources
appropriately, promote micro, small and medium enterprises,
privatisation, ensuring a flexible labour market and promotion of FDI.
However, most of the people have suggested that the government
should bring the black money back. The least preferred economic reform
is a flexible labour market. The economic reform, "bring black
money back" indicates that a large amount of black money is hidden
and the government has not taken any necessary steps to avoid it. If
black money deposits were an Olympics event, India would have won a gold
medal hands down. If this black money is brought back, the entire debts
of our country could be removed and the rest of the amount could be used
for economic development of our country. Dishonest people have deposited
in foreign banks in their illegal personal accounts a large sum of
amount, which have been misappropriated by them. This amount could be 13
times larger than the country's foreign debt.
Corruption in the country continues to be a problem tearing into
the fabric of governance.
Recently, due to international pressure, the Swiss government
agreed to disclose the names of the account holders only if the
respective governments formally asked for it. Indian government is not
asking for the details. This huge amount has been appropriated from the
people of India by exploiting and betraying them. Once this huge amount
of black money and property comes back to India, the entire foreign debt
can be repaid in 24 hours. After paying the entire foreign debt, we will
have surplus amount, almost 12 times larger than the foreign debt. If
this surplus amount is invested in earning interest, the amount of
interest will be more than the annual budget of the Central government.
So even if all the taxes are abolished, then also the Central government
will be able to maintain the country very comfortably.
If this money is back, India can emerge as a nation with all
sustainable and developing qualities like,
* Every Child in India can be educated
* Many more Institutions with good infrastructure can be built
* Many nuclear and thermal plants can be built
* Many more projects such as construction of dams, reservoirs, etc.
can be done
* India can host more than two Olympics which is impossible even to
USA and UK at this point of time.
* Many developments can be done such as improvements in our
economic standards, developing tourist areas, preserving forest etc.
* There will be no word called starvation, no child or any
individual would die out of starvation. All citizens can be provided
with sufficient food by improving our agriculture standards. No chance
for unemployment, which is one of the major problems at present.
* Many hospitals and many more advanced technologies have been
adopted in treatment process.
* High quality roads and large number of buses would have evolved.
* Hiking of prices of daily used commodities (rice, wheat, oil,
sugar, vegetables, etc.) would not have evolved.
Judicial Reforms
In order to provide speedy and quality justice accessible to the
ordinary citizens, there is urgent need to reform our judicial system. A
sound judicial system isn't just about delivering justice--it also
affects economic interests as an effective legal system can mitigate
some aspects of political instability, including security and law and
order issues. It was intended to identify the various judicial reforms
that the public expect from our Indian government. Enacting laws as and
when required at the immediacy, improving the judge-population ratio and
making supreme court accessible were the key reforms expected by the
people in terms of the judicial domain.
Enacting laws as and when required at the immediacy, improving the
judge-population ratio and making supreme court accessible were the key
reforms expected by the people in terms of the judicial domain.
The discussions showed that most of the people suggested that the
government should enact laws. The least preferred judicial reform is to
improve judge-population ratio.
The level of crime in the country is at the extreme and it is the
need of the hour for the governments to enforce required measures and to
put forward stringent laws. Increased crime rates play a decisive role
in hindering the growth of a nation as a unit, especially in the case of
developing countries like India. The task of crime regulation is solely
under the hands of the government; analysis of the crimes can be carried
out in order to derive conclusions and suggest necessary actions and
measures.
Health Reforms
The country remains challenged with several pressing issues which
includes maintaining good health for the second largest population in
world. The most peripheral and most vital unit of India's public
health infrastructure is a primary health centre. India's primary
health care needs quick reform. There is a need for standardisation and
regulation of the healthcare. Healthy living conditions and access to
good quality health care for all citizens are not only basic human
rights, but also essential prerequisites for social and economic
development.
Respondents have suggested that the government should appoint more
doctors in rural areas. They also preferred actions including
availability of free medicines, health care for the urban poor and
better pay for ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activists).
Most part of our country is covered by rural areas. In other words,
rural areas form the backbone of our country. Development of these rural
areas adds upon to economic development of our country. But in the past
decades, it has been observed that the mortality rate is increasing
especially among the tribal regions due to lack of proper medical
facilities. Health issues confronted by rural people are many and
diverse--from severe malaria to uncontrolled diabetes, from a badly
infected wound to cancer.
To improve the prevailing situation, the problem of rural health is
to be addressed both at macro (national and state) and micro (district
and regional) levels. This is to be done in a holistic way, with a
genuine effort to bring the poorest of the population to the centre of
the fiscal policies.
Agricultural Reforms
The critical issues that plague Indian agriculture at present are
the knowledge deficit and infrastructure deficit, especially in the
rural areas. Government, therefore, has to play a major role in
providing support to farmers. This will ensure that agricultural sector
remains viable and caters to the country's needs.
The agricultural reform that is most sought indicated helping
farmers in improving their yield. As the country is agriculture-based,
the major portion of income comes from agricultural sector. But due to
industrialisation and urbanisation, the agricultural lands are used for
constructing tall towers and buildings. The farmers lose their income
and are down-trodden. Lack of resources and the absence of adequate
incentive structures have led to the break-down of extension services in
most states. Therefore apart from providing a direct helping hand to the
farmers, linking them to markets and increasing investments in
agricultural sector are also other areas that were suggested by the
respondents.
Investments need to be prioritised to build a sustainable ecosystem
that can mitigate frauds efficiently, including frauds of the future.
Conclusion
The study has shown that the public is found to be much aware about
the various scams that have taken place in India. The media plays an
important role in revealing scams to public. Among various kinds of
media like radio, social networking sites, etc., most of them prefer
newspapers to update themselves. Social media can be a powerful source,
as it shows its value every day in helping to spread awareness about the
important issues of the day. The overall public opinion is that scams
actually lower down our country's image. Public awareness is
increasing and people are starting to recognise the signs and stop
before it is too late.
People prefer a government that would satisfy most of the economic,
judicial, health and agricultural reforms. The need for improving
governance and ethical culture across public and private sector
companies has never been felt as acutely as is being felt now. While
there is greater awareness of fraud and misconduct among corporate
India, the associated risks need to be considered at a strategic level.
Investments need to be prioritised to build a sustainable ecosystem that
can mitigate frauds efficiently, including frauds of the future. This
study has given evidence of the issues and solutions that people expect
and it is high time for the government and citizens to work together on
these issues that nurture a better environment for business and
management.
J. Anitha
Associate Professor, GRG School of Management Studies, Coimbatore.
Nikitha Natarajan
MBA Graduate, GRG School of Management Studies, Coimbatore.
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Table I
Preferred Medium for Public Information
Medium preferred to get Number of users Percentage
public information of users
Social networking websites 42/92 18.4
Newspapers 91/92 39.9
Chat with neighbors 29/92 12.7
Television 58/92 25.4
Radio 8/92 3.5
Table II
Friedman Test to Analyze the Preference of Type of News on Scam
Mean Rank Rank
Regional News 2.54 1
Editorial Page 4.10 5
Business News 3.44 3
National News 2.76 2
International News 3.61 4
Sports News 4.54 6
Chi square: 74.589; Sig level: 0.000
Table III
The Effectiveness of Media in Revealing Scams to Public,
with Respect to their Residence and Gender
Test Sig.
Intercept 0.001
Gender 0.385
Residence 0.223
Gender * Residence 0.379
Table IV
Test Statistics for Regression Analysis
Unstandardised
Coefficients
Model B Std. Error
1 (Constant) -1.069 0.682
Gen. public opinion 0.239 0.154
Impact of media 0.335 0.108
Comparison with other 0.135 0.102
countries
Impact of scams 0.497 0.088
on public
Standardised
Coefficients
Model Beta t Sig.
1 (Constant) -1.567 0.121
Gen. public opinion 0.133 1.548 0.125
Impact of media 0.258 3.107 0.003
Comparison with other 0.116 1.325 0.189
countries
Impact of scams 0.471 5.663 0.000
on public
a. Dependent Variable: Overall opinion of public
