Contents: Preface. 1. Corruption: perceptions, reality and policy implications/Binayak Ray. 2. Corruption, accountability and political parties in Bangladesh: connections and consequences/Samiul Hasan. 3. Combating corruption: the Indian experience/Arun Prosad Mukherjee. 4. Corruption among the public servants in India/Sankar Sen. 5. Corruption, governance and economic development in Pakistan/Sajid Anwar and Ahmed M. Khalid. 6. Combating corruption: an afterword/R.J. May. Index.

"Corruption, in its many forms, is being seen increasingly as an obstacle to good governance, a constraint on economic development, an impediment to social equity, and eventually a source of political instability and, in extreme cases, state failure. By almost any indicator of corruption, the performance of the South Asian countries has been poor.

Corrupt practices in the region have a long history, and were sustained during British colonial rule. They flourished during the Second World War and in the context of political and social change in the post-independence states. In this volume, a group of distinguished scholars and practitioners provides an overview of key issues and examines the varied experiences of the three major countries of South Asia: Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. The contributors focus on measures designed to address corrupt behaviour, domestically and internationally, bearing in mind the need to tailor reform efforts to local circumstances."