Hawala is an old system of moving money between places, often across borders. A broker takes cash in one city, and a partner broker pays it out in another. No money travels between them at the time. They settle their accounts later, between themselves.
The system “operates on a system of trust, reputation, and personal connections,” as a legal analysis puts it. In India, hawala transfers contravene the Foreign Exchange Management Act of 1999.
The Palanpuri Jains, a historic business community, are prominent in the diamond trade of Antwerp, with networks reaching Mumbai and Surat. Their trade, an article in The Conversation explains, “operates on credit, relies on trust.” It adds: “The diamond industry cannot enforce written contracts.”
The community’s own social controls do that work instead. “In the diamond trade, your name has traditionally been your collateral,” one Indian essay notes.
An angadia is a courier who carries cash, jewelry and documents from one city to another for merchants. The system began in Gujarat and has worked for centuries. It is legal in India.
The trade rests on a network of trusted individuals, mostly from Gujarati, Marwari and Malabari communities. The couriers charge only a small fee.
In 2011 Business Standard asked Indian companies how they found their staff. “We hire almost 30% of our lateral talent acquisition through our employee referral programme,” said Raghavendra K, head of human resources at Infosys BPO. At iGATE Patni, Mahesh Guru said that 24 percent of the previous year’s hires had come through referrals.
Sifarish means a recommendation. A person with sifarish has someone who has spoken for them. The Rekhta dictionary gives recommendation and intercession as its first meanings. It notes that the word can also mean “undue favour or influence.”
Recruitment notices of the Union Public Service Commission, which selects candidates for India’s top government posts, carry a standard instruction: “Canvassing in any form will disqualify a candidate.”
Every Member of Parliament could once recommend 10 children each year for admission to a Kendriya Vidyalaya, one of the central government’s schools.
The Centre scrapped the quota in 2022. Asked later in Parliament, the education ministry said: “There is no proposal at present to resume the quota for MPs.”
Indian banks used to ask anyone opening an account for an introduction from an existing customer of the bank. Someone the bank already knew had to vouch for the newcomer.
In December 2012 the Reserve Bank of India told banks to stop insisting on it. The requirement, it said, was not mandatory under any of its rules.
Indians applying to government offices often needed copies of their mark sheets, birth certificates and other papers attested by a gazetted officer, a senior government official. An affidavit was the alternative.
In July 2014 the central government asked states and union territories to accept self-attested copies instead where possible. The change was to come in phases. Attestation stayed where a law requires it.
Jaan-pehchaan means knowing people and being known by them. A study by Berger, Barnes, Konwar, Singh and colleagues surveyed managers at more than 300 companies in India.
It describes three parts of the practice: pehchaan, recognition, len-den, give and take, and bharosa, trust. Together they shaped how satisfied companies were with their business relationships and how long they planned to keep them.