Economic growth itself was not to blame for this: some countries, such as Poland, managed to introduce market reforms without an accompanying wave of cronyism. Rather, corruption turned out to be a political problem, in which liberalisation required changes to the way the state managed and regulated India’s economy. When this did not happen, it was all too easy for those with power and connections to build what was often described as a ‘nexus’, linking together tycoons, politicians and bureaucrats to their own ends. The word ‘corruption’ implied rottenness in something previously healthy, but
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