We often call India a dysfunctional country.
The pothole that never gets filled.
The clerk who vanishes at lunch and never returns.
The form that demands your father’s name but not your own consent.
But here’s a thought—what if India isn’t dysfunctional… what if it’s systems-less?
That’s not a softening of the truth. It’s a reframing. Because dysfunction implies a broken machine. Something designed, built, deployed—and then failed.
But what if the machine was never really built?
India didn’t inherit robust systems. It inherited a colonial operating system wired for extraction, not empowerment. And what we call bureaucracy today is often just repurposed colonial plumbing patched with jugaad, corruption, and sheer human improvisation.
When we label this as “dysfunction”, we assume failure of design. But most of the time, there was no design to begin with.
Why This Distinction Matters
Because you approach a broken machine differently from one that never existed.
If a system is broken, you fix it.
If it never existed, you build it.
When we try to create impact in India—startups, social enterprises, policy interventions—we often assume there’s a functional baseline to plug into. That someone else is taking care of the wiring.
That the data will be there. That the permissions will be rational. That someone, somewhere, is minding the shop.
But when you build with that assumption, the system fails you.
Not because it’s hostile.
Because it’s absent.
What Happens When You Rely on Nonexistent Systems?
Let’s say you’re building a mental health app for Tier 2 India.
You assume psychiatrists are trackable. That clinic data is reliable. That local NGOs will follow structured SOPs.
But they don’t. They never had to. The default mode is relationship-based, not system-based.
You don’t “plug into the mental health infrastructure.” You build it.
Or consider building an agri-tech platform. You assume cold chains exist, logistics are traceable, farmer land records are digitized.
Wrong.
That’s not dysfunction. That’s vacuum.
You are the system.
The Real Challenge: Systems as Culture
India runs on social systems, not institutional ones. Kinship, caste, favors, phone calls.
It’s not that Indians are incapable of process—it’s that the incentives for system-thinking were rarely aligned.
Legacy businesses used middlemen, not management systems.
Government offices used power dynamics, not documentation.
Families used control, not contracts.
So, when you introduce a new system—say, a transparent procurement platform or a last-mile distribution model—you’re not just building tech.
You’re challenging culture.
You’re trying to replace something informal but trusted with something formal but unfamiliar.
That’s hard.
So What Do We Do?
- Stop Lamenting Dysfunction
Start mapping what systems don’t exist, and ask: what’s the minimum viable system I can build here? - Design for Absence
Assume zero infrastructure. Design tools that seed new behavior, not just optimize existing ones. - Build Visible Proofs
Show systems working in microcosms. A well-run FPC. A village-level logistics network. A trust-based but trackable health program. - Layer Systems Slowly
Start with people, not platforms. Introduce one structure at a time. Let it take root. - Document the New Culture
Not just the app, the SOP, or the user flow. But the belief system that makes it work.
The India That Works Is the India We Haven’t Built Yet
India isn’t broken. It’s waiting.
Waiting for builders who don’t expect a foundation, but lay one.
Waiting for entrepreneurs who see the vacuum and say, “Perfect. Now I can build from scratch.”
So the next time you’re tempted to call India dysfunctional, pause.
You might just be standing in a place where no one has built the system yet.
And maybe, just maybe—that’s your job.