New Delhi Dec 6 : India's image on tackling corruption has not improved with Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) placing it at 94th rank out of 176 nations this year.
Though India was ranked at 95th position last year, the international watchdog said it has started evaluating the positions through a different formula beginning this year and hence this cannot be compared to last year's ranking.
However, the last year's rank of 95 would be 96 if it is calculated using the new methodology which implies there was a "slight improvement" in the index.
This year, India has a score of 36 out of 100 on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean) which is a result of an average of 10 studies including World Bank's Country Performance and Institutional Assessment and Global Insight Country Risk Ratings.
India was ranked 72 among 180 countries for the first time in 2007 and since then the country's rankings have been showing a decline. While India was placed at 87 in 2010, the position was 95 in 2011.
This year, India is ranked below neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka and China, while Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh fared much worse than India when it came to corruption in public sector undertakings.
Sri Lanka, which is slowly limping back to normalcy after a three-decade civil war, is ranked at 79 while China is ranked at 80.
Denmark is placed at the top spot with a score of 90 while Finland and New Zealand follow very closely. Countries that occupy the bottom ranks in the index are Myanmar, Sudan Afghanistan, Somalia and North Korea.
"Corruption is a hydra-headed monster and governments have to make efforts to tackle it from all sides. This can only happen if all stakeholders work together," said P S Bawa, Chair of Transparency International India.
Anupama Jha, Executive Director of Transparency International India, listed the efforts being taken by the watchdog to create awareness about corruption among people and steps being implemented to curb the menace.
According to the 2012 CPI, majority of the 183 countries scores less than 50 -- a clear indication that corruption is perceived to be rampant world wide.
S K Agarwal, Co-chair of Transparency International India, hoped that the "Supreme Court will soon deliver its verdict on a PIL on debarring criminals from contesting elections".
This year, the Transparency International has updated its CPI methodology allowing for year-over-year comparisons for all editions published from this year.
