Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2021

• Vaid's ICS, Lucknow
• 28, Jan 2022

Why in  News?

• Transparency International has ranked India at 85 among 180 countries in its Corruption Perception Index report released recently.

Key Findings

• World:
  • Overall, two-thirds of the 168 countries on the 2015 index scored below 50, on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean).
  • Denmark took the top spot for the 2nd year running.
  • North Korea and Somalia turned out to be the worst performers, scoring just 8 points each.
  • Among those with weak scores are some of the world’s most populous countries such as:
    • China (45) and
    • India (40), and
    • Indonesia (38),
    • Pakistan (28) and
    • Bangladesh (26)
  • In the Asia Pacific area, the common rating stays 45 for the third 12 months in a row. Over 70% of the area’s nations rank beneath 50.

Pandemic: 

• The pandemic, supplied an excuse for Bangladesh, Pakistan and Singapore governments to “tighten control and weaken accountability.

India:

• In 2021, India ranked 86th with the same CPI score of 40. This year, it has improved one position, 85th.

Issues:

Stagnant score:

• While the country’s score has remained stagnant over the past decade, some of the mechanisms that could help reign in corruption are weakening.
  •  

Democracy:

• There are concerns over the country’s democratic status, as fundamental freedoms and institutional checks and balances decay

Risk to journalists:

• The report highlighted concerns over the risk to journalists and activists who have been victims of attacks by the police, political militants, criminal gangs and corrupt local officials.

Right to Speak:

• Civil society organisations that speak up against the government have been targeted with security, defamation, sedition, hate speech and contempt-of-court charges, and with regulations on foreign funding