Corruption topmost risk to Indian business environment: FICCI

A leading industry body on Friday ranked 'corruption, bribery and corporate frauds' as the topmost risk that impact Indian business environment.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) revealed the topmost risk to the Indian business environment in the latest edition of 'India Risk Survey 2015' (IRS 2015) survey.

On the 'corruption, bribery and corporate frauds' as the topmost risk, the survey said the recent news coverage and public uproar related to various cases involving major corporate houses justifies this trend as having the highest mind recall value and has also been assigned the greatest concern in recent times.

"Continuing with the trend evident from last year, the focus of the respondents for risk analysis continues to be on how the entire gamut of corruption, scams and corporate frauds are affecting the economy," the survey said.

The survey was conducted jointly by FICCI and Pinkerton Corporate Risk Management.

According to the industry body, the objective of the survey is to inform and sensitise all stakeholders about the emerging risks to the developing economies like India.

Apart from 'corruption, bribery and corporate frauds', the survey revealed that 'information and cyber insecurity', 'terrorism and insurgency', 'business espionage' and 'crime' as other major risks to business environment in India.

The survey said that risks of 'strikes, closures and unrest' and 'political and governance instability', which were earlier in the top five risk brackets have dropped in the rankings to 6 and 11th positions respectively.

"This is a major shift in the yearly trends primarily due to the positive impact caused by a perceived stable government coming to power at the centre post the 2014 general elections," the survey said.

The industry body pointed out that the survey encompasses 12 key risks that pose a threat to the entire economic system of the country; and though each risk is rated on a mutually exclusive basis.