Why in the News?

• According to a Transparency International report, India ranked 93 out of 180 countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index for 2023.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Corruption Perception Index (Objective, Scoring Method, Significance, etc.)
• Corruption Perception Index 2023 (Rankings of the Countries)

Corruption Perception Index:

• The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is an index which ranks countries "by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys."
• The CPI generally defines corruption as an "abuse of entrusted power for private gain".
• It is the most widely used global corruption ranking in the world.
• It measures how corrupt each country’s public sector is perceived to be, according to experts and business people.
• The index is published annually by the non-governmental organisation Transparency International since 1995.

How are Country Scores Calculated?

• Each country’s score is a combination of at least 3 data sources drawn from 13 different corruption surveys and assessments.
• These data sources are collected by a variety of reputable institutions, including the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.
• The CPI measures perception of corruption due to the difficulty of measuring absolute levels of corruption.
• A country’s score is the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0-100, where 0 means highly corrupt and 100 means very clean.

Significance of the CPI Rankings:

• The CPI is the leading measurement for public sector corruption worldwide.
• Because it combines many different manifestations of corruption into one globally comparable indicator, it provides a more comprehensive picture of the situation in a particular country than each source taken separately.
• The process for calculating the CPI is regularly reviewed to make sure it is as robust and coherent as possible.

Corruption Perception Index 2023:

• The 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index shows that corruption is thriving across the world.
• Over two-thirds of countries score below 50 out of 100, which strongly indicates that they have serious corruption problems. 
• The global average is stuck at only 43, while the vast majority of countries have made no progress or declined in the last decade. 23 countries fell to their lowest scores to date this year.
• Denmark (90), Finland (87)&New Zealand (85) are ranked top 3 countries in the rankings, respectively.
• Every region is either stagnant in its overall corruption efforts or showing signs of decline.
  • While Western Europe and the European Union remains the top-scoring region, its regional average score dropped to 65 this year.
  • Sub-Saharan Africa maintains the lowest average at 33, with democracy and the rule of law under pressure.
  • The rest of the world remains stagnant with all other regions having averages under 50.
• In 2023, India's overall score was 39 which puts it at 93^rd position out of 180 countries. India's rank in 2022 was 85.
  • As per the report, India’s score shows fluctuations small enough that no firm conclusions can be drawn on any significant change.
• In South Asia, both Pakistan (133) and Sri Lanka (115) grapple with their respective debt burdens and ensuing political instability, it said.
• China (76) has made headlines with its aggressive anti-corruption crackdown by punishing more than 3.7 million public officials for corruption over the last decade.