Hawala goes west

It's time for another quintessential Indian invention to get western recognition. Though not as universal in use like the zero or as hastily protected as Darjeeling tea or Basmati rice, hawala money transfers is something the West woke up to last fortnight. Officials, investigating the thwarted Times Square bombing in New York, are wondering if Faisal Shahzad got his funding through informal networks known as hawala in South Asia instead of Western Union money transfers.

Shahzad purchased his bomb kit and flight tickets using cash, raising suspicions. Indian politicians have for long been suspected of salting away dirty money using these "I know you and your cousin" networks. So have terrorists. Despite the ingenuity of the system, it's unlikely that the Americans will patent the hawala system. It's not quite what Western Union and Wells Fargo would appove.