Concept Note Trust is a valuable social asset that forms the basis of democracy. Trust demands respect for the inherent value and rights of a human being. It is time for us to accept that while taxes are the price we pay for civilization - civilization cannot sustain itself without trust. Distrust kills transparency, creates divide and fuels manoeuvring to suit ones motive. If a government distrusts its people, people are likely to reciprocate by distrusting the system. Reciprocity and cooperation increase in a trust based regime where people trust that others will indeed reciprocate. Sadly in India it is this trust that is missing. Recent events have only pointed out the extent of this trust deficit and the lack of faith that people have in the laid down processes and the norms of democracy that we so proudly hold to with high esteem. The best way to promote trust is to promote procedural justice, legitimacy, and identification which would create a sense of respect for the authorities among the mass and a belief that he is being trusted by the men in power. In India we follow a system wherein the citizen is expected and thus enforced upon to pay a certain amount of tax which is higher by a certain percentage over his previous years' tax payment irrespective of the business cycle, the nature of the business or his actual income. This emanates from the pre-conceived notion that everyone evades tax. Whereas, in many developed countries it is assumed that you would voluntarily pay the right amount of tax. There are no raids, and searches, and even with a much higher tax rate, the compliance is much higher. The only difference is that if one is caught for tax evasion, then the punishment is certain and severe so that no one would dare do so. In India, the prevailing raid and search encourages more evasion, to get away with pay-out to the enforcement agencies, with the thumb rule of greater the evasion, higher the payout. The compliance is low, so is the collection. Punishment is severe in India but not certain which only points that stricter the punishment prescribed, higher the payout to get away. Trust based compliance with strict enforcement in case of any breach of this trust is the need of the hour. This would make the tax system more robust, transparent and vibrant. The call is for freedom from being harassed by the authorities due to the huge discretionary power that they enjoy. Our system entrusts the authorities with excessive discretionary power. We may look at dilution of this excessive discretionary power to enable more trust and faith in the system. As a one time exercise, we may also look at an amnesty scheme to clear off all backlogs and post that treat whosoever evades tax with strict enforcement. Trust your citizen, and if he betrays your trust, punishment should be certain and exemplary. o Today with the prevalent 360 profiling, we can literally track all transactions and expenditures of any individual, particularly of the high net worth individuals. The amnesty scheme would only help a large section of willing citizens to come clean and honest, who have been living in the muddle of corruption and deceit forced upon by the antediluvian tax system. The syndrome of cases never getting closed have further increased the discretionary power of the enforcement agencies. We must look for a timely closure of cases. Any complain should come to a logical conclusion in a prescribed timeline and should not continue to eternity. If anyone is found guilty then he should be convicted and if no charge is found then the individual should be released of all charges. Only then can we have transparency in our enforcement mechanism instead of harassment.
Theme Presentation 1
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Afreen Merchant 7
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Ankit Arora & Abhishek Jain 13
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Hiten Bachani 17
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Pranay Nagori & Jemish Golakiya 21
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Ankit Anuraj 24
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Rohit Gulabwani 32
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Archana Sharma & Akansha Goel 37
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Snippets from various presentations received 42
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The Genesis The year 2008 was crippling to the wave of national pride and self-efficiency that India, as a nation seemed to be experiencing. The innumerable bomb blasts and terror attacks that rocked the country since 2004 seemed to culminate into a horror of serial blasts across the face of our motherland with 28 November, 2008 being the final nail to the coffin. These events clawed at the glaring flaws that we had previously ignored as being part of the system and mundane. The Corruption and total disregard for Ethics that Indians took in their stride suddenly transformed into the mutilated gashes and clotted blood that marred the faces of our loved ones and neighbors. We are all proud of our economic prowess by being one of the fastest growing economies. But we are still striving for an inclusive growth, where the benefits of the growth do not get percolated to the society. We all wish to lead a life of virtues which have been taught to us in our schools, like morality, honesty and truth, but how frequently have we come across instances of bending the rules, jumping the traffic signal and getting away with a token bribe. Even in the prestigious international events where the whole world is watching at us, we do not resist from mass scale corruption even at the extreme cost of putting the whole Nation in shame. We require the media to bring out these issues of corruption to be forgotten with the exposure of the next big embezzlement and blatant misappropriation of tax payers money. We are being battered frequently by ghastly acts of terrorists, but could not device a concrete way out, from being mutilated by acts of cowardice of a handful. Have we become too immune of what is happening around us? It is a matter of fact that political and bureaucratic corruption, public funds embezzlement, fraudulent procurement practices and corruption in the enforcement and regulatory institutions and consumer exploitation by private companies/ contractors plague Indian public life. Corruption not only stifles growth, it also perpetuates inequalities, deepens poverty, causes human suffering, dilutes the fight against terrorism and organised crime, and tarnishes India's image globally. The impact of corruption is multi fold, encompassing: political costs, economic costs, social costs, environmental costs and issues of national security. Acknowledging the potential of the youth and the need to involve them in building an honest society, Gujarat NRE National Integrity Theme Presentation Contests have been a regular event in various premier institutions including NIRMA University. We started with a presentation contest at Nirma University, Ahmedabad. Students from all over the country enthusiastically participated in debating on the points that would transform 'India into the one that they dreamed of' and considered how long would the pledge 'No bribes, No Illegal Moves, No out of the way favours' take to catch on. The inference that we took from this stimulating experience was the confirmation of our prickling fear that 'Corruption DID in fact feed terror'. And thus we put the question to the contestants at IIM-A 'How can we get rid of corruption?' who replied from across the country with a unanimous 'Reformation and the Implementation of Ethical Laws and a general practice of Ethics'. The Integrity Theme Presentation contest at Global Steel 2010 in Goa was a continuation to this effort. Our path led us to Goa, where we called on every Indian to talk about the importance of the reformation in our present judicial system, so that it does not force us to be corrupt. The need of robust, simple and easily understandable laws that minimize loopholes, thus ensure ready and quick justice. Laws that do not ensure eternal continuity of the judicial process, justice delayed is justice denied. Where there is certainty of punishment rather than severity of punishment. Last year at NIRMA University we took the views of youth on the CVC's National Anti Corruption Strategy Paper, which was a comprehensive document and we could present the same as comments on the strategy paper. The endeavour was indeed appreciated by the CVC. At the National Conference on Integrity this year we received enthusiastic response from across the country on whether enforcement agencies are friend or foe and also on media and corruption in addition to the comments on CVC's anti corruption strategy paper. This year making a full circle we are at NIRMA University to discuss on whether trust based or enforce compliance is more effective. The youth of India do not hesitate to pour out their heart. The views are always refreshing and thought provoking which is natural to the youth. The recent upsurge against corruption has also been possible due the energy of the youth. The youth today is calling for Resurgence with Ethics
The Genesis The year 2008 was crippling to the wave of national pride and self-efficiency that India, as a nation seemed to be experiencing. The innumerable bomb blasts and terror attacks that rocked the country since 2004 seemed to culminate into a horror of serial blasts across the face of our motherland with 28 November, 2008 being the final nail to the coffin. These events clawed at the glaring flaws that we had previously ignored as being part of the system and mundane. The Corruption and total disregard for Ethics that Indians took in their stride suddenly transformed into the mutilated gashes and clotted blood that marred the faces of our loved ones and neighbors. We are all proud of our economic prowess by being one of the fastest growing economies. But we are still striving for an inclusive growth, where the benefits of the growth do not get percolated to the society. We all wish to lead a life of virtues which have been taught to us in our schools, like morality, honesty and truth, but how frequently have we come across instances of bending the rules, jumping the traffic signal and getting away with a token bribe. Even in the prestigious international events where the whole world is watching at us, we do not resist from mass scale corruption even at the extreme cost of putting the whole Nation in shame. We require the media to bring out these issues of corruption to be forgotten with the exposure of the next big embezzlement and blatant misappropriation of tax payers money. We are being battered frequently by ghastly acts of terrorists, but could not device a concrete way out, from being mutilated by acts of cowardice of a handful. Have we become too immune of what is happening around us? It is a matter of fact that political and bureaucratic corruption, public funds embezzlement, fraudulent procurement practices and corruption in the enforcement and regulatory institutions and consumer exploitation by private companies/ contractors plague Indian public life. Corruption not only stifles growth, it also perpetuates inequalities, deepens poverty, causes human suffering, dilutes the fight against terrorism and organised crime, and tarnishes India's image globally. The impact of corruption is multi fold, encompassing: political costs, economic costs, social costs, environmental costs and issues of national security. Acknowledging the potential of the youth and the need to involve them in building an honest society, Gujarat NRE National Integrity Theme Presentation Contests have been a regular event in various premier institutions including NIRMA University. We started with a presentation contest at Nirma University, Ahmedabad. Students from all over the country enthusiastically participated in debating on the points that would transform 'India into the one that they dreamed of' and considered how long would the pledge 'No bribes, No Illegal Moves, No out of the way favours' take to catch on. The inference that we took from this stimulating experience was the confirmation of our prickling fear that 'Corruption DID in fact feed terror'. And thus we put the question to the contestants at IIM-A 'How can we get rid of corruption?' who replied from across the country with a unanimous 'Reformation and the Implementation of Ethical Laws and a general practice of Ethics'. The Integrity Theme Presentation contest at Global Steel 2010 in Goa was a continuation to this effort. Our path led us to Goa, where we called on every Indian to talk about the importance of the reformation in our present judicial system, so that it does not force us to be corrupt. The need of robust, simple and easily understandable laws that minimize loopholes, thus ensure ready and quick justice. Laws that do not ensure eternal continuity of the judicial process, justice delayed is justice denied. Where there is certainty of punishment rather than severity of punishment. Last year at NIRMA University we took the views of youth on the CVC's National Anti Corruption Strategy Paper, which was a comprehensive document and we could present the same as comments on the strategy paper. The endeavour was indeed appreciated by the CVC. At the National Conference on Integrity this year we received enthusiastic response from across the country on whether enforcement agencies are friend or foe and also on media and corruption in addition to the comments on CVC's anti corruption strategy paper. This year making a full circle we are at NIRMA University to discuss on whether trust based or enforce compliance is more effective. The youth of India do not hesitate to pour out their heart. The views are always refreshing and thought provoking which is natural to the youth. The recent upsurge against corruption has also been possible due the energy of the youth. The youth today is calling for Resurgence with Ethics