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Corruption Perception Index (2021)

28th January, 2022

Figure 4: No Copyright Infringement Intended

Context:

  • Transparency International has ranked India at 85 among 180 countries in its Corruption Perception Index report released recently.

Findings

World

  • On a scale of 0 (most corrupt) to 100 (least corrupt), two-thirds of the 168 countries on the 2015 index scored below 50. (Perceived to be very clean).
  • For the second year in a row, Denmark has taken the top rank.
  • North Korea and Somalia were the poorest achievers, with each receiving only 8 points.
  • Some of the world's most populous countries are among those with low scores, including:
    • China (45) and 
    • India (40), and 
    • Indonesia (38), 
    • Pakistan (28) and 
    • Bangladesh (26)
  • For the third year in a row, the common rating in Asia Pacific remains at 45. Over 70% of the countries in the region are ranked in the bottom 50.
  • The pandemic provided a reason for the governments of Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Singapore to "tighten control and weaken accountability."

India Specific:

  • India placed 86th in 2021, with the same CPI score of 40. It has moved up one position to 85th this year.
  • While the country's score has stayed relatively stable over the last decade, several of the processes that could assist combat corruption are deteriorating.

Issues with India:

  • Democracy: As fundamental freedoms and institutional checks and balances deteriorate, there are questions about the country's democratic character.
  • Journalists are at risk: The research raised concerns about the dangers facing journalists and activists who have been targeted by police, political militants, criminal gangs, and corrupt local officials.
  • The Freedom to Speak: Security, defamation, sedition, hate speech, and contempt-of-court charges have been levelled against civil society organisations that speak out against the government.

 

About Corruption Perception Index:

  • Transparency International is the organisation that created it.
  • The measure looked at public sector corruption perceptions in 168 countries.
  • It evaluates 180 nations and territories based on experts' and business people’s perceptions of public sector corruption on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 being severely corrupt and 100 being very clean.
  • It is a composite index that ranks countries around the world based on 12 surveys.

 

About Transparency International:

  • Transparency International is a global movement fighting corruption in over 100 countries.
  • It is a Berlin-based international non-governmental organisation that was created in 1993.
  • Focus: Issues with the greatest influence on people's lives are prioritised, and the powerful are held accountable for the greater good.

Working style:

  • Work is done to expose the institutions and networks that enable corruption to exist, demanding greater openness and integrity in all aspects of public life through advocacy, campaigning, and research.
  • Stopping corruption and promoting openness, accountability, and integrity at all levels and in all areas of society is our mission.

Definition of Corruption:

  • Corruption is defined as the misuse of entrusted authority for personal gain.
  • Corruption undermines confidence, undermines democracy, stifles economic development, and exacerbates inequality, poverty, social division, and the environmental disaster.
  • We can only expose corruption and hold corrupt people accountable if we understand how corruption works and the mechanisms that support it.

 

Suggestions to Improve:

  • Protect the rights that allow people to hold power accountable.
  • re-establish and enhance institutional checks and balances on power
  • Combat corruption on a global scale.
  • Maintain the right to know about government spending.
  • Economic recovery strategies should address the fundamental flaws that have contributed too many countries' corrupt institutions in order to move forward jointly in long-term anti-corruption initiatives.
  • Participation of informed people who are free to assemble, talk openly, and blow the whistle on corruption without fear of retaliation.
  • Adherence to the 2012 Jakarta Statement on Principles for Anti-Corruption Agencies, its Colombo Commentary, and regional commitments like the Teieniwa Vision, as well as all other UN Convention against Corruption requirements.
  • The only legally binding universal anti-corruption instrument is the United Nations Convention against Corruption.