Maybe it’s a legacy of the British civil service; maybe it’s something in the water… I don’t know.

 
Whatever it is, the level of bureaucracy is mind-blowing. And, since people casually say that all the time in the abstract, I’m going to get all data-driven and quantitative about it. The craziest part? Most of the examples of this that I’ve experienced recently are from interactions with the PRIVATE SECTOR.

 
Here goes:

•  I had to sign my name 158 times to open a new HDFC bank account, and the paperwork isn't finished.  I had to stamp every one off those pages with a little corporate stamp that costs $8 down the road and somehow proves that the signatures are legitimate.
  

• d.light spent over $1500 in legal fees to get the first bank account open; mostly due to back and forths over the exact correct format for upteen board resolutions, some of  which had to be signed by directors living overseas initially.  After all that - YES Bank would only issue me one debit card for the whole company - and they dont have a credit card available for corporates.
  

• To then get debit cards for my employees I had to write another 68 signatures!

• I had to file a document of over 100 pages in order to get a VAT# in the state of Uttar Pradesh (so that I can sell lights and the government can take their sales tax).  Now we have to go to court and stamp a lot more papers.  the whole process takes about 3 weeks.
  

• Since arriving here I’ve had 28 checks rejected for having a “bad date” or a “bad signature,” including when the 8 in 2008 was in a slightly heavier ink form, and when my signature loop varied in placement.

• The total number of checks I’ve had rejected during the past 3 decades of life in Pakistan, Benin, Mauritania, United States, Canada, Rwanda and Macedonia? That would be 0.