While it is a big issue, and still quite prevalent, things are changing fast thanks to digitization of much of the government workflows. There is almost no corruption in departments that have been fully digitized.

It's a long way to go, but thankfully technology seems to be solving a human problem.

Please. It is well documented that systemic corruption was introduced at scale by the East India Company and we carry a lot of arcane baggage from the erstwhile colonial power.

We are eradicating it through education and technology to the extent possible, albeit at a slower pace than we would ideally like.

I don't think anyone is arguing why there is systemic corruption. The parent was merely pointing out that it's a problem today.

If it's of any comfort - corruption is alive and well in most other countries as well, they simply have more resources per citizen and as a result, it is better disguised.

The solution seems to be to raise the standard of living of everyone involved - corruption is not going anywhere, it seems to be a deeply rooted human trait.

That might be an excessively pessimistic attitude - intolerance of corruption is also a deeply rooted human trait.

It seems to me there might be some tradeoff between having a flexible society and having a just one, the more leeway any particular actor has, the more they can use that leeway to gain personal advantage. It seems at least possible that a thorough study of the factors affecting levels of corruption could improve the overall system to have both more personal freedom and less overall corruption.