Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia perceived as most corrupt countries scoring just 8 out of 100

India has been ranked 94th out of 176 countries in Transparency International’s 2012 Corruption Perception Index (CPI). Last year, India was ranked 95 out of 183 countries that were studied.

In this year’s CPI, India earned a very low score of 36 on a scale from 0 (most corrupt) to 100 (least corrupt). Transparency International India attributed the low score to the recent scams and incidents of corruption in the public sector involving government officials, private officials and private companies.

Two-thirds of the 176 countries recorded a CPI score below 50. Denmark, Finland and Switzerland topped the index with a score of 90 followed by Sweden with a score of 88. Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia were perceived as the most corrupt countries scoring just 8 out of 100.

India has been ranked below neighbours Sri Lanka and China, while it fared better than Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Transparency International said data from 10 independent sources specialising in governance and business climate analysis including the World Bank and the World Economic Forum were used to arrive at India’s CPI score.

Updated methodology

From this year, the CPI methodology has been updated allowing for year-over-year comparisons from 2012 onwards. India was ranked 72 among 180 countries in 2007 and since then the country’s ranking fell to 87 in 2010 and 95 in 2011.

“Corruption is a hydra-headed monster and governments have to make efforts to tackle it from all sides. This can only happen if all stakeholders work together,” said P. S. Bawa, chair of Transparency International India.