Bank A/Cs & toilets point to India’s anti-graft fight: Govt

The record increase in bank accounts and toilets is indicative of India’s fight against corruption as government has abolished middlemen’s role in transactions and is keeping a check on money spent on sanitation, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said. “If you want to know how well India is addressing its corruption problems, just take a look at bank accounts and toilets. That was the message from Smt Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s minister of state for commerce and industry, at the Fortune Global Forum conference on Tuesday,” Fortune magazine said in a news report published.

At the Fortune Global Forum conference in San Francisco, Sitharaman said in a little over a year, 190 million Indian citizens have opened bank accounts for the first time. The balances in the accounts are small, just an average of USD 21 per account. Nevertheless, Sitharaman said, “financial inclusion” has been a major push of Prime Minister Narendra Modi s administration, not just because it can improve the finances of India’s poorest citizens, but because it also helps stamp out corruption, the magazine reported on its website.

When government workers are paid in cash, middlemen can take a portion of those wages. That has been the case with India’s pension payments as well. Today, the government can deposit money directly in workers’ accounts, eliminating fraud. Sitharaman said that something as simple as counting toilets can offer a helpful glimpse into India’s progress in combating corruption.