| Summary, etc. |
"There is enough in the world for every one's need but not enough for even one man's greed" - thus observed Mahatma Gandhi. The greed for money and more money has impelled man to violate social norms, exploit loopholes in existing legal provisions and outrightly break the laws of land. In the present age, to have money is to be virtuous, honest, beautiful and witty. And to be without is to be ugly and boring and stupid and useless. Therefore, economic crimes have become the order of the day. In the early days of independence India has been a soft state and many of its economic reforms not only opened the barriers to business, they also created a thousand areas where economic crimes could proliferate. Considering the sweeping economic and technological changes, these forms of crimes have taken an aminous hydra - headed transformation causing significant damage to the general economy and adversely affecting the growth and development of the nation. The revolution in computer and telecommunications made economic crimes expensive to investigate, highly elusive and no longer limited by geographic boundaries. These crimes, especially of drug - trafficking, money-laundering, smuggling in arms, explosives, and human and cultural property etc. coupled with the advantage of off-shore banking are much more dangerous than individual acts of violence. If society is to avoid the potentially high costs of technology driven crime, financial frauds and corruption, critical planning and analysis must be addressed immediately. Partnership approach and coalitions among law - making, law enforcement, communications and computer service providers, voluntary social organisations and local bodies must be established to develop strategies to detect and prosecute crime in a speedy way. Enforcement agencies need to be restructured, properly trained and highly specialised. - Reproduced |
