London: Have we become a loyal nation, adhering to transparency and accountability. Yes, says that Global Corruption Index. According to the data released for 2018, India has moved up three places since last year — from 81 to the 78th place.
1. The index prepared by Transparency International, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, placed India at the 78th place. In the 2016, India was in the 79th place among 176 countries.
2. The index used a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
3. India’s score in the latest ranking marginally improved and it was 41 compared to 40 in 2017. In 2015, the score was 38.
4. The ranks might have improved India’s standing among the global committee of nations, and its value on the face of it, but people in the streets begged to differ. “I have not seen any perceptible change during this last one year,” said Pradeep Sikdar, a telecom engineer working at a firm in Bhubaneswar, unsure about the parameters used for the rankings.
5. Indians can, however, take solace from the fact that China’s position remained worse than India despite the country’s stepped up efforts to check this menace. It slid 10 position from 77 to 87.
6. According to the latest rankings, Denmark emerged as the least corrupted nation, taking the pole position, followed by New Zealand at No 2 and Finland at No 3.
7. Singapore, home to countless Indians, shared the 3rd position with Finland and Sweden.
8. On the other hand, Somalia remained at the most corrupted nation at 180th place and president Kim Jong-un’s reclusive North Korea at 176th place.
9. United States, modern time’s most successful nation, was ranked at the 22nd place. But it has dropped out from the list of top 20 least corrupted nations.
10. India’s neighbour Bhutan scored high in the index and was placed at the 25th. Pakistan was placed at a poor 117 position and Bangladesh at 149 position.
