Bureaucracy has many hues and shades and it generally runs deep in all government departments. Many times, it defeats isolated sparks of empowerment initiatives taken by some departments to service specific needs.
The incident below illustrates a classic case:
During my tenure with the Army HQ at Delhi in the eighties, I happened to visit one of my colleague in his office. He was the staff officer for training and had additional task to oversee the functions of the Army Adventure Foundation. Remember, this was before the internet era and a fax machine was a luxury then permitted only to very selected functions in government.
My friend told me very proudly that he is now empowered to send a fax anywhere in the world to support the Army Adventure Foundation, especially to speed up import of equipment etc. While I was with him, he drafted a fax for such a purpose and instead of sending the message to a number in the US, he sent the draft in a file through a messenger for approval of the Director General Training in a different building. I was curious and asked him, how long it took to get the approval. He was a bit hesitant but told me it usually took anything up to a week!!
Did he still need the Fax?