February 22,2018:
Transparency International has stated that 2017 results show that corruption in many countries is still strong and when individuals dare to challenge the status quo, they are met with threats and bodily harm, including death.
On Wednesday, 2017 Corruption Perception Index, released by Anti-Graft watchdog, Transparency International, has ranked India at 81 among 180 countries and territories.
Index is based on the perceived levels of the Public Sector Corruption according to the experts and the business people, using a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
India’s score in 2017 is 40 which is equivalent to the 2016 score, and an increase since 2015, when it was 38. There has been a gradual increase in India’s rank since 2012, when India had scored 36 points on the index.
However, India has fared better than the neighbours like Sri Lanka (ranked 91), Pakistan (117), Myanmar (130) and Bangladesh (143), but is behind Bhutan (26) and China (77).
Acording to the Index, New Zealand and Denmark are least corrupt countries, while Syria, Sudan and Somalia figure are ranked the most corrupt.
Among the BRICS nations, South Africa has been ranked the least corrupt (71), while Russia (135) is the most corrupt.
Report states that there is a High Variance in Public Sector Corruption across Asia Pacific region, with more than half of the countries scoring less than 50.
Report further adds that,“While corruption continues to be a rampant problem across the region, improvements will only be made if there is strong political will for change and if a comprehensive strategy is adopted, not one based on isolated actions”.
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