Context:

India’s rank has slipped six places to 86th among 180 countries in the corruption perception index (CPI) in 2020.

Corruption Perception Index (CPI)

• Released by: Transparency International (TI).
• The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is the leading global indicator of public sector corruption, providing an annual snapshot of the relative degree of corruption in 180 countries and territories.
• The index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and business people.
• It uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
• A country with a higher score has a higher rank.

Key-findings of the Index

• India ranked at 86th position with a score of 40 while more than two-thirds of countries scored below 50, with a global average score of just 43.
• India’s score is below the average score of the Asia-Pacific region (31 countries) and global average.
• India was ranked at 80th position out of 180 countries in 2019.
• With a score of 31, India’s neighbor Pakistan ranked at 124. Other top-scoring nations include Singapore with a score of 85, Australia with 77, and Hong Kong also with 77.
• This year, New Zealand and Denmark rank at the first position with scores of 88.
• Somalia and South Sudan rank lowest at 179th position with scores of 12.