I am not sure what is this big obsession with World Bank blacklisting companies. After the Satyam fiasco, now IBN and ET are reporting in big titles that Indian IT companies Wipro, Megasoft have also been barred by this lending institution. The World Bank is also acting as a moral king by saying that they are publicly disclosing these names (and it is on the first home page of the worldbank.org website) for transparency reasons.
Now lets come to the point - so what?
The World Bank does not carry morals of any sort to command such a important headline in this area. If they have banned Satyam, Wipro or anyone, it is something internal to them. Why does the developing world need to care so much? The World Bank has not set any standards on ethics or corruption free practices. The World Bank has not set or upped any bar on moral codes of conduct. The World Bank has not even tried to keep its house in clean order before banning others for polluting it.
If only the World Bank was a publicly listed entity, no one would be purchasing its shares in any market- developing or otherwise. The organization would have folded for corporate governance (or the lack of it), (mis)management, double standards and corrupt practices. Ideally many organizations like Wipro would have banned doing any business with World Bank.
Maybe, the first thing the World Bank can do to ensure its integrity is to publish a list of (total, if not of individual staff) share holdings with institutions and and real estate holdings of areas/countries they do business with.
Back to my other rhetoric. The emerging popular media of India, IBN, CNBC, NDTV & TOI should stop sleeping with anyone who can be called as "flash news". The top respected journalists of India should be setting standards now, instead of running a TRP ratings war against each other. The media should ask relevant questions and also understand sensitivities. But when who cares?
Now lets come to the point - so what?
The World Bank does not carry morals of any sort to command such a important headline in this area. If they have banned Satyam, Wipro or anyone, it is something internal to them. Why does the developing world need to care so much? The World Bank has not set any standards on ethics or corruption free practices. The World Bank has not set or upped any bar on moral codes of conduct. The World Bank has not even tried to keep its house in clean order before banning others for polluting it.
If only the World Bank was a publicly listed entity, no one would be purchasing its shares in any market- developing or otherwise. The organization would have folded for corporate governance (or the lack of it), (mis)management, double standards and corrupt practices. Ideally many organizations like Wipro would have banned doing any business with World Bank.
Maybe, the first thing the World Bank can do to ensure its integrity is to publish a list of (total, if not of individual staff) share holdings with institutions and and real estate holdings of areas/countries they do business with.
Back to my other rhetoric. The emerging popular media of India, IBN, CNBC, NDTV & TOI should stop sleeping with anyone who can be called as "flash news". The top respected journalists of India should be setting standards now, instead of running a TRP ratings war against each other. The media should ask relevant questions and also understand sensitivities. But when who cares?
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