Global Corruption Index: India Ranks 85, Which is the Least Corrupt Country?

India is ranked 85th among 180 countries in the Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), 2021.

Last year India’s ranking was 86.

Meanwhile, Pakistan scored 28/100 to rank 140 in the list at par with Myanmar.

This is Pakistan’s worst drop in these rankings since 2010. In 2010, Pakistan had registered its worst performance and was relegated to 146th rank.

Denmark, Finland and New Zealand were ranked the least corrupt scoring 88 finishing on top followed closely by Norway, Singapore and Sweden who scored 85 points.

The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is the most widely-used global corruption ranking in the world. It measures how corrupt each country’s public sector is perceived to be, according to experts and businesspeople.

‘As anti-corruption efforts stagnate worldwide, human rights and democracy are also under assault. This is no coincidence. Our latest analysis shows that protecting human rights is crucial in the fight against corruption: countries with well-protected civil liberties generally score higher on the CPI, while countries who violate civil liberties tend to score lower. The global COVID-19 pandemic has also been used in many countries as an excuse to curtail basic freedoms and side-step important checks and balances’, said Daniel Eriksson,Chief Executive Officer, Transparency International Secretariat

The top performers in Asia Pacific are New Zealand (CPI score: 88), Singapore (85) and Hong Kong (76). However, most countries sit firmly below the global average of 43.

This includes three countries with some of the lowest scores in the world: Cambodia (23), Afghanistan (16) and North Korea (16).

Among those with weak scores are some of the world’s most populous countries, such as China (45) and India (40), and other large economies such as Indonesia (38), Pakistan (28) and Bangladesh (26).

Weaker Institutions.

A concerning trend across some of these nations is a weakening of anti-corruption institutions or, in some cases, absence of an agency to coordinate action against corruption.

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From India to the Philippines to China, such leaders have been able to portray themselves as more effective than state institutions and win mandates to gain and stay in power. However, only a few of these countries have managed to make progress in controlling corruption and these gains remain fragile. Furthermore, in most countries, corruption is spreading through severe restrictions on the very civil liberties – like freedom of association and speech – which allowed people to take to the streets and call for action.

“The case of India is particularly worrying. While the country’s score has remained stagnant over the past decade, some of the mechanisms that could help reign in corruption are weakening. There are concerns over the country’s democratic status, as fundamental freedoms and institutional checks and balances decay. Journalists and activists are particularly at risk and have been victims of attacks by the police, political militants, criminal gangs and corrupt local officials. Civil society organisations that speak up against the government have been targeted with security, defamation, sedition, hate speech and contempt-of-court charges, and with regulations on foreign funding,” Transparency International said.

To come up with Corruption Perception Index (CPI), following manifestations of corruption in public sector are taken into consideration

1. Bribery
2. Diversion of public funds
3. Officials using their public office for private gain without facing consequences
4. Ability of governments to contain corruption in the public sector
5. Excessive red tape in the public sector which may increase opportunities for corruption
6. Nepotistic appointments in the civil service
7. Laws ensuring that public officials must disclose their finances and potential conflicts of interest
8. Legal protection for people who report cases of bribery and corruption
9. State capture by narrow vested interests
10. Access to information on public affairs/government activities