Technology looks to provide especially promising solutions. Last year Swati Ramanathan helped to found a website, www.ipaidabribe.com. Indians post details of how they are forced to bribe. “Rather than moralise about corruption,” she says, “we need first to know the details of what is happening, and uncover its market price.”

In seven months the site has lodged 5,000 reports of paying bribes. On March 9th, for example, someone in Belgaum, Karnataka, admitted shame after giving 200 rupees ($4) to pass a driving test. In Mumbai it costs 1,000 rupees to register a baby. Bigger bribes are usually paid when land is at stake. Perhaps when Indians are better informed they will feel more empowered and refuse to pay. Reportedly, Bangalore's transport commissioner likes the site too, as it lets him see how corrupt his junior officials have become.

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