I agree with HiAlt, its not the bribe that you give when you go to get your work done. Ohh its lets say the gifts that you bestow on them as Diwali gifts and now even Christmas gifts.
The question that comes in is whether you are willing to take the monetory losses that comes with not bribing? I was asked a meager INR5000 for the issue of my ATPL. I simply refused to pay the money as my paper work was in order and had all the relevant qualification. Well, rather than taking a week to issue the licence DGCA took 3 months. In my company we got a pay raise of INR 120,000 upon issue of ATPL. So I reckon I lost out on almost INR350,000 by not giving that 5K in bribe. Yes, I have self satisfaction that my licence was issued without giving bribe, but that bit costed me almost US$8500. Was it worth it? To me every penny of it
The Babu mentality is going away slowly, of course not quick enough for many people. When the current DG retires, I have learnt from reliable sourse, that the new DG will be from outside. Some really dynamic IAS officer (as if they do not take bribes.)