Echoing these observations the web portal of Corrupt India in its web site, (http://www.corruptindia.com) provides information on corrupt politicians, government departments and also contains a grievance cell that one can post comments and complaints. The Home Page of the website remarks as under:

"India celebrates its Independence Day every year on 15th August. Independence from what and for whom? From the nagging persistence of poverty and social injustice? From the unfair system and corrupt practices? From the clutches of political leaders, who mislead people with false slogans and insincere promises. How come our independence has been hijacked by corrupt people, who have made majority of the honest people impotent. Have we really become impotent? If impotency is not to overwhelm, we must take the right initiative to move forward in weeding out Corruption. At this critical juncture, we should give clear and candid message, "either govern and deliver the goods or get lost"

Further voicing similar sentiments another web portal, Parivartan, representing a movement against extortionist type of corruption, where people have to pay bribes to get their legitimate work done in Government, expresses in its web page
http://members.tripod.com/parivartan/ as under:

"The monster of corruption has engulfed almost every walk of life and enjoys complete social respectability. The notion that there is nothing wrong in giving and taking bribes is becoming a part of the national psyche. This is perhaps the most disturbing aspect. There is a general feeling of skepticism and cynicism against any thing connected with the government.

Each one of us is responsible for the mess we are in today. Every individual has become extremely self-centered over the years; "nothing but my own interests matter to me and I shall have my interests served at any cost". This has led to the corruption and degeneration of the systems at an exponential rate, the results of which we witness today. Hence, it is in our collective interest that we sit down, relax, introspect and decide whether we wish to continue in the same manner or we wish to reverse this trend?

Most of the people blame the political leadership for this mess. A number of them feel that only a benevolent dictator could take us out of this morass. So, do we wait for that elusive leader indefinitely and let the degeneration continue or do we take the task of building a modern, vibrant India upon ourselves.

We, at Parivartan, do not want India to be named the most corrupt nation in the world. We do not want our motherland to be named the country of poor and beggars. We do not want this nation to be named the country of the illiterate and the sick. We want INDIA to be known for its economic prosperity and spiritual values.

Another portal to join this ongoing crusade is Bhrasht.com ( http://www.thefifthestate.org).

This is a site where you can report corruption to the concerned agencies. It includes a rogue's gallery, a list of cases pending, unabridged text of the Prevention of Corruption Act, a discussion forum, as also a link to Transparency International sourcebook on preventing corruption. The word 'Bhrasht' is the vernacular (Hindi) equivalent of the English word 'Corrupt'. This English equivalent is defined in the Webster's Unabridged Dictionary - 'Guilty of dishonest practices (such) as bribery, without integrity; debased in character, depraved, perverted, crooked, wicked, evil; decried putrid, infected, tainted. Applies to one especially in public office, who acts on mercenary values without regard to honour, right or justice. This site in its drive for its onslaught against corruption cites as under:

"…Which brings us to bhrasht.com, a non-profit site that serves as an interactive public forum for the free exchange of opinions, viewpoints, and arguments related to 'corruption' in the country's public affairs, and motivates and provides users with a channel to report public functionaries indulging in malpractices as per the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 that they personally come across.

The latter is provided through an online form which forwards the complaints by electronic mail to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), the quasi-judicial organisation with a constitutional mandate to deal with instances of 'corruption' in the jurisdiction of the Government of India, as well as published at the Hall of Shame with the hope that the public humiliation it brings the listed individuals acts as a deterrent to others intent on misusing public office for personal profit.

Not that that's the only way this country's populace is being taken in by vested interests, to use a cliché much favoured in journalese. It's just that the penchant for sensationalism gripping the Indian media keeps you and me unaware of any number of malpractice in the way business and industry goes about for the sake of their bottom lines"

One more forum on the Internet to wage war on corruption is 'mantrimahoday.com' (web site - http://www.mantrimahoday.com. It offers citizens a platform to voice their concerns about issues affecting them. It promises to raise the issues with the concerned authorities. It also has a section on parliament, speeches, ministers, and a forum for specific issues like J & K, dowry, education and Narmada. The Homepage of the site reads as under:

Mantrimohoday.com
INITIATE ISSUE

This powerful interactive section is India's first and most user friendly Forum for Citizens to voice their concerns, opinions and suggestions to the ministers/ministries. Use this section to form a community of like-minded individuals.

It is you who can help fight corruption in politics and right a wrong. mantrimahoday.com gives you the platform to raise issues, voice your concern and form a group to fight for your cause. The INITIATE ISSUE section gives you a platform to display your message to the whole world and helps you to form a group of like-minded people. The issues are addressed to the concerned authority/ minister/ministry.

mantrimahoday.com is a non-partisan site that does not have any views or ideologies, it does not support or oppose any political party, politician, cause or individual. The use of this site is governed by the terms and conditions detailed in the Terms & Conditions section.

Transparency International is a civil society organisation dedicated to curbing both international and national corruption. It is a global coalition against corruption spread in over 77 countries and having its head quarters in Berlin, Germany. It has carried out its project on building and pursuing a nation's integrity and brought the Source Book, which brings together "best practices in the building and maintaining as country's National Integrity System, with financial assistance from Ford Foundation. Full information on the organisation is available in link pages at the site http://thefifthestate.org.

Relevant extracts with reference to the fight against corruption from the executive summary of Transparency International Source book is appended here below:

"Corruption is found, to some degree, in every society. As a sign that something has gone wrong in the relationship between society and the state, corruption is becoming a pervasive phenomenon. We read about it everyday in the newspapers--public service has been replaced by private greed, and national integrity systems, intended to contain corruption, are failing...

However, combating corruption is not an end in itself, it is not a blinkered crusade to right the wrongs of the world. Rather, the struggle against malfeasance is part of the broader goal of creating more effective, fair and efficient government. Reformers are not just concerned with countering corruption per se, but with reversing its negative impact on development and society as a whole. The wise reformer knows that corruption can never be entirely eliminated. Under many realistic conditions, it will simply be too expensive to do so. A single-minded focus on corruption prevention can also have a negative impact on personal freedoms and fundamental human rights. Corrupt programs and services may be difficult toeliminate entirely; bureaucratic discretion (which often opens the door to corrupt decision-making) may continue to be necessary for effective administration; and stronger enforcement and deterrence is anything but cheap. Thus, the aim is not to achieve complete rectitude, but to realize a fundamental increase in honesty -and so the efficiency and fairness - of government.

So where should anti-corruption efforts start? The obvious point of entry is to gain an understanding of the underlying causes, loopholes and incentives, which feed corrupt practice at any level. Understanding begins by dispelling the myth that corruption is a matter of "culture". In most cultural contexts, public gifts are made openly and transparently; the Swiss numbered bank account is not a part of any country's traditional culture; the people who live in societies where corruption is supposedly a "part of the way of life" generally bitterly resent the practice; and, bribes and payoffs are almost invariably illegal and criminal under the laws of the "cultures" involved.

The next step is to ask the question what are the main types of corruption occurring within the public domain? The first type is "petty" or "survival" corruption practised by civil servants who may be grossly underpaid and depend on small rents from the public to feed their families and pay school fees. There are some who would argue that this type of corruption helps firms and individuals circumvent government requirements--reducing delays and avoiding burden some regulations and taxes. This view sees payoffs as nothing more than the "grease" needed to operate in a difficult environment. If not vigorously attacked, however, small-scale, facilitating bribes can feed on themselves to produce a corrupt spiral. Frequently too, petty corruption is simply a downwards projection of much more damaging forms of corruption at higher levels. The "grand" corruption of high public officials often involves large, international bribes and "hidden" overseas bank accounts. It is frequently fostered by exporters from countries (in particular, the industrialized countries) which may (knowingly or unknowingly) offer tax breaks for the bribes paid and refuse to regard the trans-border corruption of public officials as being criminal behaviour.

But this is not to say that corruption is limited to situations where the rules are either inefficiently restrictive or overly lax. Incentives to make and ask for payoffs occur whenever a government official has economic power over a private firm or individual. It does not matter whether the power is justified or unjustified. Once a pattern of successful payoffs is institutionalized, corrupt officials have an incentive to raise the size of bribes demanded and to search for alternative ways to extract payments. Officials may refuse to serve clients unless a bribe is paid. They may design a major procurement project at too large a scale and with too much specialized equipment as a way of generating large bribes and keeping them hidden. They may accept payments to reveal secret information on privatization projects and to favour insiders. None of these examples represents the efficient use of pricing mechanisms in the public sector. All of them involve poor public and private choices and risk imposing large costs on society--costs which are often shouldered by those who can least afford to bear the burden"