On Tue, 2008-02-26 at 20:32 +0000, Badri Natarajan wrote: > PS - The issue may become moot soon, anyway. The Indian govt is > planning > to introduce visas-on-arrival for citizens of a number of Western > countries:
wow! someone in govt found a brain cell! i once heard an official in the indian embassy in the hague who was giving a dutch businessman a ridiculous amount of trouble regarding some obscure original invitation he should have included in his application. he said "woh hame itna rulate hain, ab hum rulaienge" (they give us so much grief, we can do it to them too). i find it mildly annoying how europeans (or americans) complain about the indian visa procedures, given how messed up their own are. but contrast that tit-for-tat approach with the chinese embassy, that told me i could get my visa in 30 minutes instead of a few days if i just paid a 50% extra visa fee. no wonder china does so much better business than india. but visas on arrival will give india a big advantage. -rishab
