Context:

• The annual corruption index of Transparency International for the year 2017 has been released.
• The index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption.
• The index uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

Highlights of the index:

• India’s ranking slid to 81 among a group of 180 countries.
• This index also singled out India as one of the “worst offenders” in the Asia-Pacific region.
• In 2016, India was in the 79th place among 176 countries.
• India’s ranking in the index had plummeted in 2013 and 2014 in the wake of the spectrum and coal scams. The ranking has improved since then but seems to be showing signs of weakening.
• New Zealand and Singapore scored the highest scores with 89 and 84 out of 100, respectively. Somalia was found to be the most corrupt country in the world.
• A majority of the world’s countries scored below 50 on the index with the global average score coming at around 43. India’s score of 40 in 2017 puts it below the global average.
• The result of this index show that corruption in many countries is still strong. In some countries across the Asia-Pacific region, journalists, activists, opposition leaders and even staff of law enforcement or watchdog agencies are threatened, and in worst cases, even murdered, the report stated.
• Philippines, India and the Maldives are among the worst regional offenders in this respect. These countries score high for corruption and have fewer press freedoms and higher numbers of journalist deaths.
• The 2017 index revealed that despite attempts to combat corruption, most countries were moving too slowly with their effort. In the past six years, many countries have made little to no progress. 

Source:TH & IE