New Delhi: India’s ranking increased one place to 85 among 180 countries in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) in 2021, according to a new report by Transparency International which increased on the status of the country’s democracy.
The index, which is ranked 180 countries and regions by the level of corruption of their public sector which is felt according to experts and business people, using a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is very corrupt and 100 very clean.
Among those who have weak scores are some of the most populous countries in the world such as China (45) and India (40), and other major economies such as Indonesia (38), Pakistan (28) and Bangladesh (26), reports by anti-corruption watchdog say.
India’s rating was enhanced by one place to 85 in 2021 of 86 in 2020, according to the index. Except Bhutan, all neighbors India are ranked underneath. Pakistan dropped 16 spots on the index and was ranked 140.
Calling a very worrying Indian case, the report released on Tuesday said that the country’s score was still stagnant over the past decade, several mechanisms that could help rule in weakening corruption.
“There is concern about the status of the country’s democracy, as a fundamental freedom and institutional examination and balancing pedicab.
“Journalists and activists are very risky and have become victims of attacks by police, political guerrillas, criminal gangs and corrupt local officials,” said an index based report.
The report further accused that civil society organizations that spoke against the government had been targeted with security, defamation, incitement, hatred speech and allegations of insult, and with regulations on foreign funding.
“A trend on some of these countries (with a weak score) is the weakening of anti-corruption institutions or, in some cases, the absence of institutions to coordinate actions against corruption,” he said.
Denmark, Finland, New Zealand and Norway topped the list with the highest score.
While corruption takes a very different form of one country to the country, this year’s score reveals that all regions of the world are on traffic jams when it comes to fighting public sector corruption.
At the peak of the CPI, countries in Western Europe and the European Union continue to wrestle with transparency and accountability in their response to Covid-19, threatening the region’s net image.
In parts of Asia Pacific, America, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, increased restrictions on the actions of accountability and basic civil liberties allow corruption not to be checked. Even high-performance countries historically show signs of decline, the report said.