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http://headlines.sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13966408&headline=India~r
anked~88th~on~corruption~index
By Lachlan Carmichael in London
Tuesday, 18 October , 2005, 18:47
Sleaze watchdog Transparency International has placed India 88th in a
list of 159 countries surveyed for the level of corruption. India ranks
weay below United States, Norway and Australia in the list topped by
Iceland. India emerged seven ranks lower than its neighbour Sri Lanka
rated 82nd.
Chad, Bangladesh, Turkmenistan and Myanmar were perceived as the most
corrupt countries in the world.
Transparency International said in its annual report on Tuesday that
serious levels of corruption existed in two thirds of the 159 countries
surveyed, and that there was a clear link between poverty and
corruption.
Most of the countries that landed at the bottom of the list were
African countries, while those which came in at the top were
industrialized Asian and western countries, according to Berlin-based
Transparency International.
The nations perceived as the most corrupt also rank among the world's
poorest, which shows how corruption and poverty feed off each other,
according to the organization's 2005 Corruption Perceptions Index
(CPI).
"Corruption is a major cause of poverty as well as a barrier to
overcoming it," locking poor countries in "a cycle of misery," said
Transparency International Chairman Peter Eigen.
"Corruption must be vigorously addressed if aid is to make a real
difference in freeing people from poverty," he said.
Despite progress on many fronts, including the imminent entry into
force of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, 70 countries
scored less than three on the CPI, indicating a severe corruption
problem, the report said.
The CPI index score relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption
as seen by business people and country analysts and ranges between 10,
which is highly clean and zero, which is highly corrupt.
For example, the United States was ranked 17th with a score of 7.6.
Iceland topped the list with a score of 9.7, followed by Finland (9.6),
New Zealand (9.6), Denmark (9.5), Singapore (9.4), Sweden (9.2),
Switzerland (9.1) Norway (8.9), Australia (8.8) and Austria (8.7)
Bottom of the list was Chad (1.7) followed by Bangladesh (1.7),
Turkmenistan (1.8), Myanmar (1.8), Haiti (1.8), Nigeria (1.9),
Equatorial Guinea (1.9), Cote d'Ivoire (1.9), Angola (2.0) and
Tajikistan (2.1).
The rankings included shifts in performance over the last year.
An increase in perceived corruption from 2004 to 2005 can be measured
in countries such as Costa Rica, Gabon, Nepal, Papua New Guinea,
Russia, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and
Uruguay, it said.
With a score of 3.2, Sri Lanka ranked number 82 on the list.
On the other hand, a number of countries and territories show a decline
in perceptions of corruption over the past year, including Estonia,
France, Hong Kong, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Qatar, Taiwan
and Turkey, it said.
Hong Kong ranked 15 at 8.3, Japan was 21 at 7.3, France was 18 at 7.5,
Taiwan and Qatar were both ranked 32 at 5.9, Jordan was 37 at 5.7, and
Turkey was 65 at 3.5, while India was 88 at 2.9.
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Regards,
Carlos
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