Narayana Murthy Lost Seven Months Importing a Computer by Refusing Bribes
Montek Singh Ahluwalia · MONTEK SINGH AHLUWALIA PODCAST: Top Economist Explains India’s High Growth Years On The Neon Show · Nov 9, 2024 · at 1:21:00
Montek Singh Ahluwalia recounts a story told to him by Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy illustrating the friction of India's pre-reform import licensing bureaucracy on tech businesses.
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“So Naim Muthi, of course, being a very kind of disciplined, honest, morally correct kind of guy, he said, look, I'm not going to pay any bribe. What do I do? He said, it's very simple. You go back and get another license. Which will actually correct, have the correct license number, but that would also take another three or four months. And meanwhile, his computer would be sitting unused. Okay. And Naimuthi, I think he was told by his people that listen, the bribe this fellow is asking is very low, but what you're going to do is you're going to lose three months more in this process. But he was absolutely insistent. He went through it, took more time, finally got the computer cleared. But he wasted six to seven months.”
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