Corruption perception index: India cleanest in South Asia, but democratic status flagged

India's rank improved one place to 85 among 180 countries in a corruption perception index (CPI) of 2021, according to a new report which, however, raised concern over the country's democratic status.

India's rank improved one place to 85 among 180 countries in a corruption perception index (CPI) of 2021, according to a new report by Transparency International which, however, raised concern over the country's democratic status.

The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and business people, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is 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), the report by the anti-corruption watchdog said.

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.

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Calling the case of India particularly worrying, the report released on Tuesday said while the country's score has remained stagnant over the past decade, some of the mechanisms that could help reign in corruption are weakening.

“There are concerns over the country's democratic status, as fundamental freedoms and institutional checks and balances decay.