India ranks 76 in Corruption Perception Index

"Clean" countries such as Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Netherlands have "dodgy records elsewhere"

January 27, 2016 04:15 pm | Updated December 04, 2021 11:00 pm IST

The Berlin-based corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) has put India at rank 76 out of 168 countries in its latest Corruption Perception Index.

The country’s 2015 corruption perception score remains the same as last year’s – 38/100 – showing lack of improvement. India shares its rank along with six other countries: Brazil, Burkina Faso, Thailand, Tunisia and Zambia. China fared worse than India and Brazil at rank 83 with a score of 37. TI has also noted that Pakistan is the only country among the SAARC countries, to have improved its score this year, though its rank remains poor at 117.

Major scandals such as the one in Brazil’s state oil giant Petrobras involving massive kick-backs have resulted in the country's rankings plunging sharply this year. Graft allegations surrounding Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has also been cited as an instance of why that country scored poorly at 50 over its last year’s score of 52.

Hover over any country for its ranking. Source: Transparency International

While Nordic countries — Denmark, Finland and Sweden — topped the chart with their clean public sectors as in previous years, strife-torn or repressive states — Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia — form the bottom rung of the CPI ladder.

Interestingly, the report also points out that many “clean” countries such as Denmark Finland, Sweden, Norway and Netherlands have “dodgy records elsewhere”. It cites Sweden as an instance. While the country comes third in the index, the Swedish-Finnish firm TeliaSonera – 37 per cent owned by the Swedish state – is facing allegations that it paid millions of dollars in bribes to secure business in Uzbekistan, which comes in at 153rd in the index. The company is now pulling out of business in Central Asia.

But Sweden isn’t the only “clean” country to be linked to dodgy behaviour overseas, the TI website reports. Their research shows that half of all OECD countries are violating their international obligations to crack down on bribery by their companies abroad.

(with Agency inputs)

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