Corruption Perception Index 2021

Context

According to a new report by Transparency International, India's rank improved one place to 85 among 180 countries in Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of 2021.

Key-points

• The index ranks 180 countries and territories by the perceived level of public sector corruption according to experts and business people.
• It uses a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
• Among those with weak scores are some of the world's most populous countries such as China (45) and India (40), and other large economies such as Indonesia (38), Pakistan (28) and Bangladesh (26).
• India's rank improved by one place to 85 in 2021 from 86th in 2020, according to the index. 
• Except Bhutan, all of India's neighbours are ranked below it. 
• Pakistan dropped 16 spots in the index and was ranked at 140.
• The countries that have fared well are Denmark, Finland, and New Zealand, each with a score of 88 followed by Norway (85), Singapore (85), Sweden (85), Switzerland (84), the Netherlands (82), Luxembourg (81) and Germany (80). 
• South Sudan, Syria, and Somalia with scores of 11, 13, 13, remain at the bottom of the index. 
• According to CPI 2021, countries experiencing armed conflict or authoritarianism tend to earn the lowest scores and those include Venezuela (14), Afghanistan (16), North Korea (16), Yemen (16), Equatorial Guinea (17), Libya (17) and Turkmenistan (19).
• Coming to the Asia Pacific, New Zealand (CPI score: 88), Singapore (85) and Hong Kong (76) have been declared top performers. 
• Three countries with some of the lowest scores in the world - Cambodia (23), Afghanistan (16), and North Korea (16) belong to this region.