A zero-sum game is one in which the gains of one player are exactly balanced by the losses of another. In India a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) has invented a new sort of zero-sum which, it hopes, will leave everyone better off: the zero-rupee note.
According to The Economist:
The idea was dreamt up by an expatriate Indian physics professor from the University of Maryland who, travelling back home, found himself harassed by endless extortion demands. He gave the notes to the importuning officials as a polite way of saying “no.”
Vijay Anand, president of an NGO called 5th Pillar thought it might work on a larger scale:
Anand thinks the notes work because corrupt officials so rarely encounter resistance that they get scared when they do. And ordinary people are more willing to protest, since the notes have an organisation behind them and they do not feel on their own.
Simple ideas like this don’t always work, says The Economist. When India’s government put online the names of officials facing trial for corruption, the list became a convenient guide for whom to bribe. But, according to Fumiko Nagano of the World Bank, transforming social norms is the key to fighting petty corruption and the notes help that process. They are valueless, but not worthless.
Source: Report, A zero contribution, The Economist, January 28, 2010.
For text: http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15393714
For more on Government Issues: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=33
First published by the National Center for Policy Analysis, Dallas & Washington, USA
FMF Policy Bulletin/ 23 February 2010
