India has been ranked lower in corruption than neighbouring Pakistan but higher than China by graft watchdog Transparency International in a survey released on Tuesday. Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia have been ranked as the world's most corrupt countries while Denmark and New Zealand are nearly squeaky-clean.
India was today ranked among the world's highly corrupt nations at the 94th spot in a global list topped by Denmark and New Zealand as the cleanest, while Somalia emerged as the most corrupt.
While India's rank has remained unchanged from the last year, it has emerged as more corrupt than three of its BRICS peers -- China (80th), South Africa and Brazil (both ranked 72nd) -- but better than Pakistan and Russia (both are ranked at 127th) in this annual list of 177 countries compiled by Transparency International.
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Interestingly, Pakistan has improved on its last year's status by 12 places.
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According to the list, India has scored 36 points on a scale of 0-100, where 0 means that a country is perceived as highly corrupt and 100 means it is perceived as very clean.
None of the countries have managed to get the perfect 100 score.
Top-ranked Denmark and New Zealand have scored 91 points each to share the first place on the list.
Somalia shares lowest rank with North Korea and Afghanistan with 8 points each.
Those scoring marginally better than these three countries include Sudan, Libya, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Syria, Haiti, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and Myanmar.
On the other hand, Denmark and New Zealand are followed by Finland, Sweden, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, Netherlands, Australia and Canada in the top ten.
Among other major countries, Germany is at 12th, the UK 14th, Hong Kong 15th, Japan 18th and the US at 19th spot.
India has done better than countries like Thailand (102nd), Mexico (106th), Egypt (114th), Nepal (116th), Vietnam (116th), Bangladesh (136th) and Iran (144th).
Releasing the list here today, Transparency International said that its "Corruption Perceptions Index 2013 offers a warning that the abuse of power, secret dealings and bribery continue to ravage societies around the world". More than two thirds of 177 countries have scored below 50 -- the mid-way point between most corrupt and the cleanest.
"The Corruption Perceptions Index 2013 demonstrates that all countries still face the threat of corruption at all levels of government, from the issuing of local permits to the enforcement of laws and regulations," said Huguette Labelle, Chair of Transparency International.
Pakistan improves world graft index ranking
In good news for Pakistan, a global graft watchdog today placed the country several notches higher than its ranking last year in its annual index of corruption worldwide.
Pakistan ranked 48th from the bottom on the list of countries in Transparency International's 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).
It had ranked 36 from the bottom in last year's list. Its ranking on the CPI had gone from the 42nd most corrupt country in 2011 to 33rd in 2012 during the Pakistan People's Party-led government.
An improvement in ranking indicates an improvement in the country's perception under the new government that was swept to power in the May 11 general elections.
Last year, Pakistan was also declared the seventh most corrupt country out of 97 in the Rule of Law Index.u00a0
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