Much ado about nothing

Rajeev Jayaswal

The best thing about the book is its catchy title, On the Trail of the Black: Tracking Corruption. One of the authors is the chairman of the PM’s Economic Advisory Council’s and a NITI Aayog member, Bibek Debroy. The book is dedicated to PM Modi as “the Architect of Change”. 

The book will, however, disappoint if you think that it would make some sensational revelations or provide some out-of-the-box solutions to check, if not curb, the black money menace. The book is a collection of 16 articles, mostly written by professionals at NITI Aayog, trying their best to turn a topic of common concern into an erudite discussion. Most of the essays are crafted in term-paper style, suggesting that these professionals are fresh from universities and business schools. It is good to see them getting published along with an acclaimed economist. Veterans normally avoid lending their names to works of greenhorns. 

The book, it says, is based on a premise that “using public/non-public office for private gain seems to be the most commonly understood definition of corruption”. The book is a journey of apparently more than a dozen young scouts in trail of various shades of black money under the overall guidance of an authority. Authors include Sonal Bhadan, Aparajita Gupta, Suprana Jain, Swati Saini, Shashvat Singh, Dhiraj Nayyar, Maninder Kaur Dwivedi, Bhavana Kohli, Anna Roy, Ritika Aghi, Kheya Melo Furtado, Sneha Palit, Alok Kumar Dubey and Ranveer Nagaich.

Debroy’s article, Single Black, Double Black: Land and Real Estate, reveals that the real estate sector is “the biggest and most prominent” contributor to corruption. Apart from describing various shades of black, he provides detailed charts of Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme and stamp duties in various states, which would come handy for research scholars. He not only provides a formula to detect the evil — Corruption = Monopoly+Discretion-(Accountability+Integrity+Transparency) —  but also suggests required policy reforms such as rapid computerisation of land records, re-engineering land-use policies, reform stamp duty regime, repealing the Urban Land Ceiling Regulation Act, reforming the Rent Control Act, introducing e-governance in local administration and tax payments, creating computerised fiscal cadastres and rationalising property tax designs.  

The book is, indeed, a treatise on corruption that has the potential to become a ready reference for academia and policy makers but it stops short of giving a list of suggestions to curb various shades of corruption.