On today's Planet Money:
David Kestenbaum tries to figure out why there's so much bureaucracy in India. He comes up with a few possible answers — the legacy of colonialism, a pretext for bribery, and/or the machinery of democracy. He also brings back a few pictures of red tape in action. One of the photos is above; a few more are after the jump.
A Delhi merchant offers a "Pay Bill Register":
Here are a couple shots from the pages of the P.B.R., which appears to be some sort of ledger for recording payments to employees:
Finally, a quick reminder that the U.S. has yet to become a paperless nation. Here's one of the Goldman execs at that Senate hearing today:
Download the podcast, or subscribe. Music: Amit Trivedi's "Duniya Ye Duniya Badi Gol." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.