India slides from 85 to 93 on Corruption Index; Denmark least corrupt for 6th straight year
Somalia earns dubious distinction of being the most corrupt country, with Venezuela, Syria, South Sudan, and Yemen giving it company at the bottom of rankings
India has slid from 85 (in 2022) to 93 out of 180 countries on the Corruption Perception Index, 2023 (CPI). The lower the ranking, the more corrupt is the nation. This is an annual index that is released by Transparency International, a global civil society organisation.
Denmark has topped the rankings with a score of 90 in CPI 2023. The Scandinavian nation has achieved this distinction of being the least corrupt for the sixth consecutive year.
Finland came second with a score of 87, and New Zealand took the third place with a score of 85. The other names in the top ten least corrupt countries are Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg.
Somalia has the dubious distinction of being the most corrupt country in the world, with Venezuela, Syria, South Sudan, and Yemen giving it company at the bottom of the rankings. A point to be noted is that most of these nations have been facing crises, usually armed conflicts.
The CPI ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption on a score of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (least corrupt).
Transparency International said that the results of CPI 2023 seem to indicate that most countries have not been able to tackle public sector corruption. The global average score remains the same at 43 for the twelfth successive year. It also pointed out that many high-ranking democracies have received historic low scores this year.
Though India’s ranking has slipped by eight places, its score has fallen only by one point, to 39. The organisation said that India has seen a further narrowing of civic space, and that the latest Telecommunications Bill could be a “grave threat to fundamental rights”.
