But that’s too generic a description. Besides being too general a description, democracy is hardly a comprehensive description of the Indian government. Surely, the democracy found in say Switzerland is quite different from what’s in India. We need better descriptors of Indian governance. Here’s a partial list, offered in the hope that you will add your own favorite.

In a license control quota permit raj, the link between big businesses and the government is bi-directional. The government hands out licenses in exchange for part of the loot that the businesses make from their monopolistic businesses.
Just the other day a friend was telling me how one major business house (starts with a B) used to give freebies to one of India’s prime ministers (starts with a N). N would be hosted and feted by B, and in exchange, N made sure that B got licenses for steel or …

If you have not seen the movie “The Gods Must be Crazy”, you have a treat waiting for you. And if you have never heard of the “natural resource curse”, you are sure to be intrigued. They both point to the counter-intuitive nature of the world, and suggest in some sense why India is poor.