India is certainly not corrupt
India continues to languish at the half-way point on the international index of corruption, even as corruption grew in rich countries as well as poorer ones, the world's most authoritative anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) has said, just weeks before the recently ratified United Nations Convention against Corruption comes into force.
Of 159 countries surveyed, India secured a lowly spot at number 88 of the most corrupt places on the planet, along with unlikely companion countries such as Gabon, Mali, Moldova, Tanzania and Iran.
In the process, India narrowly missed the marginally higher place secured by the apparently less corrupt Dominican Republic, Mongolia, Romania, Armenia, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
But India was officially anointed as much better on the corruption league table than Algeria, Argentina, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Serbia and Montenegro, all of which are one point lower.
India's ranking, which is just below the three-point mark on the CPI,indicates "a severe corruption problem", TI said on Tuesday.
TI chairman Peter Eigen said corruption was both a major cause of poverty as well as a barrier to overcoming it because "The two scourges feed off each other, locking their populations in a cycle of misery. Corruption must be vigorously addressed if aid is to make a real difference in freeing people from poverty."
In a reiteration of the oft-repeated cliché that corruption deters foreign investment and business, the anti-corruption watchdog said that extensive research showed "foreign investment is lower in countries perceived to be corrupt, which further thwarts their chance to prosper."
It said, "When countries improve governance and reduce corruption, they reap a 'development dividend' that, according to the World Bank Institute, can include improved child mortality rates, higher per capita income and greater literacy."
TI's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) labeled Bangladesh and Chad as the most corrupt places on earth along with the likes of Haiti and Turkmenistan. However, TI declared with judicial impartiality that the rich world was not immune from rising corruption, with higher-income Canada and Ireland exemplifying a marked increase in the perception of corruption over the past ten years.
The world's cleanest countries are Iceland, Finland and New Zealand and Switzerland is not far behind, the index said. Britain is at number 11 on the table along with the Netherlands. The US is some way behind its European allies, at 17th place.
In a mild reproof to the rich world, the watchdog said that even though Third World nations needed to do more and stood to gain the most from fighting corruption, the rich world needed to take responsibility as well.
It said that richer countries needed to do their utmost to investigate and prosecute companies suspected of corrupt practices abroad. These should be barred from public contracts, it said.
The new long-term analysis of the CPI showed, said its author, Prof. Dr. Johann Graf Lambsdorff, that even wealthy, high-scoring, apparently low-corruption countries needed to work hard "to maintain a climate of integrity".
The CPI said that the situation worsened in countries such as Costa Rica, Russia and Sri Lanka, which is jointly higher-placed than India, alongside China.
Pakistan came in near the bottom of the table, along with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Paraguay, Somalia, Sudan and Tajikistan.
The TI survey, which asks businesspeople, academics and public officials about their perception of the countries in which they live or do business, with are perceived, is seen as an annual rites-of-passage marking of how well countries have done when it comes to stamping out corruption.
The index says that countries of the former Soviet Union are not doing enough to stamp out corruption with Russia, far below India at joint 126th. Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan rank even lower, it says.
African countries, with their wealth of resources and armies of pan-handling officials are particularly corrupt, the CPI says. Nigeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo are all in the bottom 20.
Of 159 countries surveyed, India secured a lowly spot at number 88 of the most corrupt places on the planet, along with unlikely companion countries such as Gabon, Mali, Moldova, Tanzania and Iran.
In the process, India narrowly missed the marginally higher place secured by the apparently less corrupt Dominican Republic, Mongolia, Romania, Armenia, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
But India was officially anointed as much better on the corruption league table than Algeria, Argentina, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Serbia and Montenegro, all of which are one point lower.
India's ranking, which is just below the three-point mark on the CPI,indicates "a severe corruption problem", TI said on Tuesday.
TI chairman Peter Eigen said corruption was both a major cause of poverty as well as a barrier to overcoming it because "The two scourges feed off each other, locking their populations in a cycle of misery. Corruption must be vigorously addressed if aid is to make a real difference in freeing people from poverty."
In a reiteration of the oft-repeated cliché that corruption deters foreign investment and business, the anti-corruption watchdog said that extensive research showed "foreign investment is lower in countries perceived to be corrupt, which further thwarts their chance to prosper."
It said, "When countries improve governance and reduce corruption, they reap a 'development dividend' that, according to the World Bank Institute, can include improved child mortality rates, higher per capita income and greater literacy."
TI's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) labeled Bangladesh and Chad as the most corrupt places on earth along with the likes of Haiti and Turkmenistan. However, TI declared with judicial impartiality that the rich world was not immune from rising corruption, with higher-income Canada and Ireland exemplifying a marked increase in the perception of corruption over the past ten years.
The world's cleanest countries are Iceland, Finland and New Zealand and Switzerland is not far behind, the index said. Britain is at number 11 on the table along with the Netherlands. The US is some way behind its European allies, at 17th place.
In a mild reproof to the rich world, the watchdog said that even though Third World nations needed to do more and stood to gain the most from fighting corruption, the rich world needed to take responsibility as well.
It said that richer countries needed to do their utmost to investigate and prosecute companies suspected of corrupt practices abroad. These should be barred from public contracts, it said.
The new long-term analysis of the CPI showed, said its author, Prof. Dr. Johann Graf Lambsdorff, that even wealthy, high-scoring, apparently low-corruption countries needed to work hard "to maintain a climate of integrity".
The CPI said that the situation worsened in countries such as Costa Rica, Russia and Sri Lanka, which is jointly higher-placed than India, alongside China.
Pakistan came in near the bottom of the table, along with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Paraguay, Somalia, Sudan and Tajikistan.
The TI survey, which asks businesspeople, academics and public officials about their perception of the countries in which they live or do business, with are perceived, is seen as an annual rites-of-passage marking of how well countries have done when it comes to stamping out corruption.
The index says that countries of the former Soviet Union are not doing enough to stamp out corruption with Russia, far below India at joint 126th. Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan rank even lower, it says.
African countries, with their wealth of resources and armies of pan-handling officials are particularly corrupt, the CPI says. Nigeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo are all in the bottom 20.
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