A for-pay model to stop corruption

(Via Newshoggers)

Graft and corruption have both a demand and a supply side.
-Shaffi Mather

You have to love this man.



Here's a guy that brought a for profit, self supporting, ambulance service to India as a response to inadequate public service.

Now he's using a business model to go after a more pervasive problem.

In the modern day world where time is premium and [the] battle for subsistence is unimaginably tough, the hapless common man simply gives in and pays the bribe just to get on with life.

A group of us have been working on a pilot basis to address individual instances of demands for bribes for common services or entitlements. And in all 42 cases where we pushed back such demands using existing and legitimate tools like the Right To Information Act, video, audio, or peer pressure we have successfully obtained whatever our clients set out to achieve without actually paying a bribe and with the cost of these tools being substantially lower than the bribe demanded.

I believe that these tools that worked in these 42 pilot cases can be consolidated in standard processes in a BPO kind of environment and made available on web, call center and franchise physical offices - for a fee - to serve anyone confronted with a demand for a bribe.

The target market is as tempting as it can get. It can be worth up to 1 trillion dollars being paid in bribes being paid every year or equal to India's GDP and it is an absolutely virgin market.

I propose to explore this idea further. To examine the potential of creating for a for-profit, fee-based BPO service to stop bribes and prevent corruption.

You have to root for this guy - but you hope he sets a good amount of his budget aside for personal and site security.

As he puts it in the video: I just have to get through the initial days where I don't get...eliminated.

Here's to ya, man. The market is huge, the margins are ripe for plucking.

What a great f-ing idea.