MUMBAI: India ranks 37th among 102 countries on the Open Government Index 2015, which ranks countries on how transparent their governments are and the ease with which citizens can hold their government accountable.

The report, released on Thursday by the Washington-based World Justice Project, is a perception survey that studied a random sample of the population in three cities in each country, and also interviewed country experts in the field of transparency .

The countries that topped the list were high-income countries such as Sweden, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands.

“When you take into account all the countries surveyed across the world, it is clear that richer countries rank higher on the index. This is obvious as they have more resources and more people connected to the internet. But when you remove high-income countries from the list, the correlation between a country’s per capita gross domestic product and its rank on the Open Government Index disappears,” Juan Carlos Botero, one of the report authors, said.

This is evident when one compares India with China. While China is on the list of upper middle income countries and India is on the list of lower middle income countries, India outperforms China by 50 ranks when it comes to transparency in governance, with China ranking 87th on the list.

The US ranked 11th on the index, despite the fact that the US government faced the heat over spying on its citizens.

“This study measures citizens’ perception of their government and the ease with which they can access government offices and information. In other studies that we have conducted, such as the Rule of Law Index, the US does not fare well on privacy,” Botero said.

Of the four parameters used to rank countries, India made it to the top one-third for publicized laws and government data, for which it ranked 27 but fared poorly on the right to information, for which it ranked 66. “This is particularly shocking as India has been one of the leading countries in the world when it comes to adopting the Right to Information Act,” Botero said.

The survey was carried out in the city, Delhi and Bengaluru, and showed that only 1% of those studied had requested information under the act. “I’m guessing the figure would be a lot lower for the country as a whole,” Botero said.

He said there was no correlation between a country having a right to information law and implementing it.

“Some countries, like Germany, do not have a freedom of information law, but score well on open governance. India, on the other hand, is in a better position as it has a strong transparency law. It now needs to implement it,” he said.

The study showed that worldwide, 40% of those surveyed were aware of laws supporting their right to access government information. While 42% of men surveyed worldwide were aware of right to information laws, the figure was 36% for women. In India, only 26% of men and 18% of women were aware of such laws. Both gender and wealth play a role in information-seeking. “Worldwide, people who are more educated, wealthier, and male are more likely to request and seek out government information than those who are less educated, poor, and female,” the report said.

Low-income respondents were less aware of their right to information in 80% of the countries, and were less likely to seek government information in 68% of the countries.

