Why am I not surprised with the results of this survey?

India’s babudom is under fire. A business survey showed that India’s ‘suffocating bureaucracy’ was the least efficient. The survey said working with the country’s civil servants was a “slow and painful” process.

They are a power centre in their own right at both the national and state levels, and are extremely resistant to reform that affects them or the way they go about their duties,” the report said.

Singapore was ranked first for a third time in a poll of 1,274 expatriates working in 12 North and South Asian nations on the efficiency of bureaucrats in those countries.

Thailand, despite four years of on-off street protests and a year of dysfunctional government was ranked third.

The survey ranked Hong Kong second. China, which has been campaigning to fight corruption in its bureaucracy and improve efficiency in the civil service, was ranked 9th in the 2009 poll, two places down from 2007.

Ranking by most efficient to least efficient economies: Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Philippines, Indonesia and India.

Will this revelation make a difference to our babus, who are experts in sitting on files and warming them? The system crawls- unless you warm their pockets. Disgusting! I wish they watched Mussaddilal on Office Office- which shows a mirror to their faces.