India has slightly improved its ranking in the corruption perception index 2016, global watchdog Transparency International said in its annual report published yesterday (25 January). The organisation used data from World Bank, World Economic Forum and other institutions to rank 176 countries by apparent levels of corruption in the public sector.

The score runs from zero, which is highly corrupt, to 100, which is very clean. India, China and Brazil – with a score of 40 each – figured in the 10 key economies in the mid-range. This is an improvement for India as compared to 2015, when it scored 38. The country’s rank, however, slipped from 76 to 79, but eight more countries were evaluated in 2016 (176 countries), so the rank is not the best judging matrix.

Transparency International’s ranking is acknowledged as a benchmark of perceptions of corruption and used by analysts and investors.