According to a report by the global watchdog ‘Transparency International (TI)’, India has grabbed the 78th spot on the Global Corruption Perceptions (GCP) Index 2018, improving its ranking by three positions. In a contrast, its neighboring country’s rankings have declined.
In a list of 180 countries, corruption in India climbed down 3 places from 81st position and ended up securing 78th. Whereas, China slipped by 10 places in the index and ranked 87th, Pakistan too followed the foot step of Chinese (as it always does) and ranked at 117th position. The index uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. However, the countries securing top spot in the list were Denmark and New Zealand scoring 88 and 87 respectively, followed by Singapore at third place. Interestingly, USA fell from 16th to 22nd position, falling below top 20 for the first time.
Talking about the decline in the ranking of China, Eugene Tan, associate professor at Singapore Management University School of Law, said the decline of China in the index revealed that corruption is still prevalent, despite President Xi Jinping’s anti-graft campaign. “The massive ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ is probably adding to the negative perception of graft-busting as being more for domestic consumption,” he added. Eugene Tan also elaborated on the Chinese policies regarding overseas economic activity and added, “China’s poor showing probably has more to do with how its intentions are perceived, particularly in overseas economic activity”.
Transparency International’s report also praised the Asia-Pacific countries for their continued fight against corruption and added, “The Asia-Pacific region is stagnating in the fight against corruption. A lack of progress is unsurprising given the prevalence of weak democratic institutions and a lack of laws and enforcement mechanisms”.
Earlier, UK India Business Council (UKIBC), a UK based non-profit organisation in its fourth annual report declared that corruption is no longer a major issue for businesses in India. “Those identifying ‘corruption’ as a major barrier has declined far more dramatically over the four-year course of this survey among those currently doing business in India [decline of 27% in the last two years] where it is no longer considered a ‘top-three’ barrier compared to those not currently active in India,” said the report.
Not to forget that almost two-thirds of the countries have scored below 50 with an overall average of 43 only. Since PM Modi held charges in 2014, India has improved heavily on the corruption front. Despite the perception of India being a corrupt nation; the ratings of India is far better than China. The Communist China where government controls everything with Iron fist finds itself lagging far behind India.
