India, Aug. 27 -- India must reform its institutions before accumulated frustration turns into a crisis that will be far more difficult and costly to control. The time for complacency is over; the time for systemic reform is now an urgency for the nation

India is witnessing an institutional crisis that can no longer be dismissed as isolated corruption, administrative inefficiency or the occasional failure of an individual officer. Millions of ordinary Indians interact every day with hospitals, police stations, courts, schools, municipal corporations, revenue offices and administrative authorities. For the common citizen, the State is not an abstract constitutional concept. It is the police station where a complaint must be registered, th...