Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International ranks countries and territories based on how corrupt a country’s public sector and judiciary are perceived to be by experts and business executives.

• It is the most widely used indicator of corruption worldwide and it does not consider corruption in the business sector. The corruption perception index draws on 13 surveys and expert assessments to measure public sector corruption in 180 countries and territories.
• The scores indicate the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0-100. A score of 0 points that a country is perceived as highly corrupt and a 100 points that a country has sound integrity systems.

The Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index make the following observations:

• Denmark is the world least corrupt country scoring 88 out of 100 points. Denmark is followed by New Zealand and Finland.
• Somalia has been ranked last with a score of 10 behind South Sudan and Syria.
• More than two-thirds of evaluated countries scored below 50 points, while the average score remained at last year’s level of only 43 points.
• Estonia, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal and Guyana demonstrated most improvements since 2012.
• The 2018 rankings showed an increase in the perceived corruption in Australia, Chile and Malta.
• For the first time since the United States dropped out of the top 20 and it was ranked at 22nd rank.
• Along with Brazil, US was placed in the watch list by Transparency International.

Top and Bottom Countries :

Region wise performance :

The report highlights a connection between healthy democracies and successfully fighting corruption in the public sector and notes that corruption is much more likely to flourish where democratic foundations are weak.

Where does India stand?

The Corruption perception index makes the following observations about India:

• India’s score has been marginally improved 41 from 40 in 2017.
• India’s ranking increased from 81^st in 2017 to 78 in 2018.
• India had slid from 79th rank in 2016.
• The report cities countries like India along with Malaysia, Maldives and Pakistan will be important to watch moving forward.
• The report notes that all these countries mentioned above have witnessed massive public mobilisation against corruption coupled with significant political participation and voter turnout resulting in new governments that promised extensive anti-corruption reforms.
• The report mentions that these encouraging developments are yet to show some tangible solid action, especially when it comes to combating elusive forms of grand corruption.
• The report noted that since India gears up for general elections, there was a little significant movement in its CPI score, which moved from 40 in 2017 to 41 in 2018.
• The report notes that in spite of spectacular public mobilisation in 2011, where citizens demanded the government to take action against corruption and advocated for the passage of the comprehensive Jan Lokpal bill, the efforts ultimately fizzled and fell flat, with little to no movement on the ground to build the specialist anti-corruption infrastructure required.

These findings gain importance at the time Supreme Court has set the ball rolling for the appointment of Lokpal by setting a deadline for the search committee to recommend names for selection committee headed by Prime Minister.