The series of scams rocking the country over a year seem to have impacted India’s image internationally. The Corruption Perception Index (CPI), a ranking by Transparency International, places India 94th of 176 nations this year.
Denmark, Finland and New Zealand are tied for first place, being perceived to have the lowest levels of state-sector corruption. The global ranking assesses the corruption perception of a country. It gave India a score of 36 out of 100, on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
India is ranked below Sri Lanka and China but above Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh, which fared much worse on corruption in public sector undertakings. Civil war-hit Sri Lanka is ranked at 79 and China at 80. Countries at the global bottom are Myanmar, Sudan Afghanistan, Somalia and North Korea.
| HOW CORRUPT ARE WE The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is issued by Transparency International — the global civil society organisation based in Berlin leading the fight against corruption. The index ranks countries and territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be. A country or territory’s score indicates the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0 – 100. 0 means that a country is perceived as highly corrupt and 100 means it is perceived as very clean. A country's rank indicates its position relative to the other countries and territories included in the index. This year's index includes 176 countries and territories | |||||
| The least corrupt countries | The most corrupt countries | ||||
| Rank | Country | CPI 2012 score | Rank | Country | CPI 2012 score |
| 1 | Denmark | 90 | 172 | Myanmar | 15 |
| 1 | Finland | 90 | 173 | Sudan | 13 |
| 1 | New Zealand | 90 | 174 | Afghanistan | 8 |
| 4 | Sweden | 88 | 174 | North Korea | 8 |
| 5 | Singapore | 87 | 174 | Somalia | 8 |
| BRICS | Remaining biggies | ||||
| Rank | Country | CPI 2012 score | Rank | Country | CPI 2012 score |
| 69 | Brazil | 43 | 19 | United States | 73 |
| 133 | Russia | 28 | 17 | United Kingdom | 74 |
| 94 | India | 36 | 139 | Pakistan | 27 |
| 80 | China | 39 | 144 | Bangladesh | 26 |
| 69 | South Africa | 43 | CPI: Corruption Perception Index | ||
| SOURCE: TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL | |||||
Last year, India was ranked 95th. However, the methodology has undergone slight modifications and is not comparable with this year’s ranking. India was ranked 72 among 180 countries for the first time in 2007 and since then the country's rankings have been showing a decline. While India was placed at 87 in 2010, the position was 95 in 2011.
Transparency International said on India’s ranking, “Such a low score could be attributed to several scams and incidents of corruption in the public sector, involving government officials, politicians and private companies.”
To calculate India’s position this year, 10 independent data sources of a total of 13 specialising in governance and business climate analysis have been used, the organisation stated. These included information from the Bertelsmann Foundation, World Bank, World Economic Forum and several others. These sources help in measuring perceptions of corruption in the public sector, enabling cross-country comparability and comparison over time.
