India plunges further in Corruption

NI Wire

New Delhi

Wed, 24 Sep 2008: 

Corruption is not uncommon in India, but what worrying more is the growth that India is acquiring year after year. The Corruption Index list devised by Transparency International— a body of global coalition against corruption— is one such list in which no country would like to make progress. What has sadned more that India in comparison to last year has slipped from 72nd position to the 85th position this year.

The reason for deepening into corruption, despite the recently enacted Right to Information (RTI) Act with the noble purpose of fetching more transparency in government functioning thus leading to stemming corruption, could be the cash-for-votes scandal that marred the July 22 trust vote in Parliament.

Transparency International India Chairman, Retd. Admiral R H Tahiliani after releasing the Corruption Perception Index 2008 on Tuesday said that waving of bundles of currency notes claimed to be bribe money offered to influencing MPs could be a possible reason for the image crisis.

Tahiliani however said RTI was not a failure, it has impacted positively and will be doing in future. The long-pending legislation like the Lok Pal Bill and the Corrupt Public Servants (Forfeiture of Property) Bill would go a long way in minimising corruption, he added.

India is ranked 85 on the Corruption Perception Index-2008, while China is ranked 72. Last year, both the countries were ranked 72.

The index is prepared on the basis of surveys conducted in 180 countries by 13 international agencies that are associated with the organisation.

Among the 180 countries surveyed, Somalia was found to be the most corrupt in terms of Corruption Perception Index (CPI) score. Myanmar, Iraq, Haiti and Afghanistan were indexed slightly better than Somalia. Myanmar and Iraq shared equally at the 178th position followed by Haiti 177th and Afghanistan 177th place.

Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden shared the topmost position, consequently, jointly indexed at number one position with a Corruption Perception Index of 9.3 each on a scale of 10. These countries were followed immediately by Singapore with 9.2, Finland, Switzerland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Australia and Canada.

The USA, Japan and Belgium were jointly placed at 18th position with CPI 7.3. United Kingdom's position was slightly better than USA as it was placed at 16th with CPI 7.7.

In comparison to last year, India's CPI reduced by 0.1 as it placed this year at 3.4 against 3.5 in 2007. China, which had equally shared 72nd position last year with India, made some progress this year placing at 72nd position with a CPI of 3.6. Pakistan was found to be at 164th position with CPI 2.5.

A country or territory’s CPI Score indicates the degree of public sector corruption as perceived by business people and country analysts, and ranges between 10 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt).