According to Transparency International's annual survey, India ranks less corrupt than China for the first time in 18 years.

India jumped 10 places to rank 85 out of 175 countries and China dropped 20 places to rank 100, according to Wall Street Journal. It was in 1996 that India had done better than China in rankings.

The Berlin-based watchdog surveyed countries based on expert opinion from around the world.

The Corruption Perceptions Index measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption worldwide, and it paints an alarming picture.

The company claims that not one single country gets a perfect score and more than two-thirds score below 50, on a scale from 0 to 100, 0 being highly corrupt and 100 being very clean.

A country or territory's rank indicates its position relative to the other countries and territories in the index.

According to WSJ, China slipped below India after losing more ground than any other country in the rankings. This is the first time China has been below India.

Denmark ranks first followed by New Zealand and Finland.

Although India has jumped 10 places to rank 185 but still it has a long way to go to join the least corrupt countries like Denmark, New Zealand and Finland.