[primitivesuave]

I came to the comments to warn exactly this, perhaps more emphatically.

Do not set up a legal entity in India. It will become a never-ending void where money and time go to die. The bureaucracy is hilariously inept and bloated, and if you are not willing to pay the bribes or for some entity to navigate the systemic corruption on your behalf, you will end up in OP's situation.

Source: hired many Indian developers in recent years for a SV startup

[grepfru_it]

When I visited a Cisco office in India, I noticed there was a prominent notice of business application and listed the Indian owner of the company. I thought that was interesting and went digging into India law about ownership. When I came out of that rabbit hole I immediately had zero interest in starting up in India. Simply because of the bureaucracy and would be way more wink-wink-$$$-nudge-nudge than what I'm even used to today with my dealings in the West Indies. Then I read the article and by the time I got to the Irrigation NOC I was nodding my head 'yup, exactly what i expected'.

It's very easy to read these requirements and agree that there are natural resources that (a) you don't want exploited and (b) want preserved, so all of these hurdles are necessary. But the timeline involved and the MULTIPLE bribes really drives home the fact that reforms are needed.

[dr_dshiv]

Well, I expected this article to be about bribes, because I assume it happens a lot. However, there were no bribes. Does anyone have actual experience with bribes in India (not traffic police)?

Edit: sorry, one person openly asked for a bribe, the Panchayat. I would like to understand more about this. Do they just ask for an amount?

[vishnugupta]

House/plot registration is a common place where most folks encounter bribe. The person/company selling you the house/plot will ask you to bring INR 15-20K in cash to the registrar office. It'll be paid to an agent who is a conduit.

Driving license is another. You'll see tens of touts in and around the govt office; you pay about INR 2-3K and get your drivers' license. Again, a tout/agent will handle it for you end to end.

Both are very well oiled machine; money goes all the way up to politicians. Getting a posting in those offices in turn requires millions of rupees of bribe, besides influence, caste angle etc.,

Speaking from personal experience.

[elmomle]

Not the OP but typically bureaucrats will talk about fees and fines, which continue without documentation of their purpose (at which point they are explicitly bribes).

Baksheesh, whereby people expect a tip ahead of time if you want decent service, is quite common in India and is essentially another form of corruption, especially when practiced by police, bureaucrats, etc.

[nabusman]

IME the bribes are often not asked directly but instead the people in the office throw up insurmountable obstacles so that you initiate the conversation of bribes. I don't know why they do this, maybe because it puts them in a better negotiating position?

[bombcar]

Soliciting a bribe is probably illegal.

But accepting a gift to do your actual job, how could that be illegal, hmmmm?

[bluGill]

If you go first you are offering a bribe. If the police are investigating offering a bribe is entrapment and your lawyer will run with that in court.

In short it is a way to avoid getting caught.

[ricktdotorg]

I worked as a Unix guy for Morgan Stanley UK & US in the 90s. As part of a SunOS to Solaris rollout, we built & pre-configured all the AFS servers for the Bombay (as it was known at the time) office before they were wrapped & palleted up to be shipped over to India to be racked & powered on over there. There was a courier (I'm not sure if he was an actual MS employee) who apparently would travel along with all the pallets and grease the wheels at certain points with cash payments. It was well known among our project team that cash bribes were an absolutely essential part of getting the servers in one piece and at the same time to our office there in Bombay. I never did find out how much the "bribe fund" was for that project but I suppose a couple of grand would have covered it. BTW The servers did get there in one piece, and they pretty much all came up as they should have.

[bornfreddy]

I read the article a bit differently... Whenever there is a "no bribes" note, all went well - elsewhere there were obstacles which could probably be solved with bribes.

[pkphilip]

Bribes are required for each of the following for any store/shop/market:

* Trade license (renewable each year)

* Shops and establishment license Weights and measures calibration (needs to be done each year)

* To get electrical connection or to get additional capacity (Rs.100,000/KW in Bengaluru)

* Export / Import - at the ports to various officials no matter how clear your papers are

* Police clearance (for restaurants)

* Health inspector (from time to time)

* Food and Safety license (needs to be renewed periodically) Labour inspector etc

* Periodic visits from panchayat/municpality/police etc where they will demand money or take stuff for free or at huge discounts

India is a cesspit of corruption

[vinay_ys]

I had a traffic parking violation recently. When I showed up at my car, I found that there was a traffic police's wheel lock on my car's front right wheel, which I assumed is because I parked in a no-parking area (a no parking sign was about 20 meters away from where I was parked). My car was one among many cars parked in that lane and mine was the only one they fined (I guess because they had only one wheel lock to deploy).

The phone number of the constable who deployed the lock was written on the lock itself. So I called it. The constable and a sub-inspector promptly showed up within 15 minutes. They spoke very politely when I asked why I was the only one being fined. They were even apologetic as they were promptly issuing me a ticket for Rs.500. I had looked up the fine before they arrived and Rs.500 was correct. I paid the fine, they removed the lock and I drove away. They were deploying that lock on another vehicle on the same lane. No bribe whatsoever. Overall, I was surprised/delighted/dazed by the whole experience.

[tkk23]

India is huge. Could there be a district with enough integrity that it can become the place to establish a company in India?

[primitivesuave]

I highly doubt it. Bribery is baked into the culture. Everyone takes bribes, and the act of solicitation does not have the negative connotations or legal ramifications that it would have elsewhere. Most Indian people who pay regular bribes are on friendly terms with the people they pay bribes to.

Also, political parties are mostly funded by bribery, and rely on literally buying the votes of villagers to maintain power. Any political entity with the power to actually tackle corruption would have little incentive to do so.

[htoiweri23423]

Can you please not claim it is part of 'Indian' culture ? The Indian state is anything but Indian.

[wittycardio]

How is the Indian state not Indian lol

[nabusman]

I think the state of Bihar is trying to do that (just armchair analysis from reading the news)

[ummonk]

Bihar is run by elected thugs and is the last place in India that an honest business would want to go.

[boruto]

Seriously, Is this a joke. Bihar would be right at the bottom of states if I ever setup shop.

[htoiweri23423]

If some of the 'liberal-intellectual' types in India have their way, the only thing Bihar will (again) be known for is the industry of kidnapping.

[wittycardio]

Yes because Bihar is run by liberals and intellectuals ?

[dirkg]

also at every level, where you are expected to file forms or deal with any officials, you will be asked to pay some bribe, and there will be 'agents' who offer to do it for you using whatever illegal means they can, for a 'fee', and in many cases they are the only feasible way of getting it done. This happens in every corrupt economy/country but in India its an art form and taken to its logical extreme.

[dr_dshiv]

Wondering—is it easier to buy an existing entity?

[loudmax]

Possibly, if for no other reason than the existing entity has the right connections, knows how to navigate the framework, and knows who to bribe to make things happen.

[ignoramous]

> Do not set up a legal entity in India.

I am curious to know how the Stripe Atlas-like services from razorpay.com and clear.in have worked out for folks here in dealing with govt-facing work?