The State of Things

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Dealing with the State, around the world: correspondents meet public employees and debate the state of various nations in this edition, presented by Owen Bennett Jones. Rajini Vaidyanathan visits a US immigration court in Virginia and hears the stories of those hoping to leave red-tape limbo, and some alarming figures about waiting times; Carrie Gracie reflects on the politically powerful and the powerless in China, from the annual plenary meeting of the National People's Congress in Beijing this week; Mark Tully asks whether Narendra Modi's first Budget for India will be able to shake off inertia, corruption and complacency - or exorcise the ghostly, dead hand of the long-gone Raj ; Alex Duval Smith volunteers to pay her income tax in Bamako, and finds Malian officials ready to reward an honest declaration of earnings; and Tom Fort leaves Chile's capital - and its government - far, far behind as he goes fly-fishing in the remote Cisnes valley in Patagonia, near the border with Argentina. Photo: An attendant prepares tea at the Great Hall of the People on March 12, 2015 in Beijing, China. (ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images)