New Delhi: India showed improvement in public perception of corruption last year, global watchdog Transparency International (TI) said in its annual report published on Wednesday that showed graft remains pervasive worldwide.

India was placed at 76th position out of 168 countries with a score of 38 out of a possible 100 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2015, improving from its position of 85 and 94 in 2014 and 2013, respectively.

The watchdog uses data from institutions including the World Bank, the African Development Bank and business school IMD to compile the perceptions of the scale of public sector corruption. The index grades a country on a scale of zero to 100, the latter being the least corrupt.

Denmark remained at the top of the index, a closely watched global barometer, for the second consecutive year as the country perceived as least corrupt. It scored 91 points, while North Korea and Somalia remained at the bottom with unchanged scores of 8.

The US rose one spot this year to 16th place with a score of 76, tying with Austria. The UK rose three spots to place 10th, with a score of 81 that tied it with Germany and Luxembourg. The other top spots, from second to ninth, were occupied by Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore and Canada.

Brazil and Turkey were among nations that tumbled the most amid an ongoing scandal at state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s expanded bid to shore up power.

Brazil slid to 76th place, sharing its position with India, down from 69th last year. Turkey fell two spots to 66th, continuing its descent from 53rd place in 2013.

“Corruption can be beaten if we work together," Jose Ugaz, the chairman of Berlin-based Transparency International, said in an e-mailed statement. “To stamp out the abuse of power, bribery and shed light on secret deals, citizens must together tell their governments they have had enough."

Transparency’s ranking, a composite index that draws from 12 surveys to rank nations around the globe, has become a benchmark gauge of perceptions of corruption and is used by analysts and investors.

Bloomberg and AP contributed to this story.

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