India ranks 81st in global Corruption Perceptions Index

India has ranked 81^st out of 180 countries in the global Corruption Perceptions Index 2017, released by Transparency International.

About Corruption Perceptions Index:

This index ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption.

• Index uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 indicates no corruption.
• Data from Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has also been incorporated in the analysis.
• The index is compiled annually by Transparency International; an international non-governmental organization based in Berlin, Germany. Transparency International was founded in 1993 with a purpose to combat global corruption and prevent criminal activities arising from corruption.

Corruption Perceptions Index 2017 – Highlights

India’s ranking at 81^st spot marks a drop by two places as compared to 79^th rank in 2016.However, India’s score in 2017 remained unchanged at 40.

• Among India’s neighbouring countries, only Bhutan (Rank 26) and China (Rank 77) are ahead of India.
• As per Transparency International, India along with Maldives and Philippines are the worst offenders in Asia-Pacific Region. These countries score high for corruption and have fewer press freedoms and higher numbers of journalist deaths.
• The report outlined a correlation that countries with the least protection for press and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) tend to have the worst rates of corruption.
• With score of 89, New Zealand is least corrupt among 180 countries, while Somalia ranked the lowest with score of 9.
• More than two-thirds of countries score below 50, while the average score for 2017 is 43.
• Most of the countries are making little or no progress in ending corruption.

Top 5 – Least Corrupt Countries: