India ranks 87 in corruption with 3.3 points; Denmark, New Zealand, Singapore clean

Transparency International (TI), an organisation leading the fight against corruption, has ranked India 87 in the 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) with 3.3 points out of the worst possible 10, while Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore tie for first place with scores of 9.3.

Unstable governments, often with a legacy of conflict, continue to dominate the bottom rungs of the CPI, a measure of domestic and public sector corruption.

Afghanistan and Myanmar share second to last place with a score of 1.4, with Somalia coming in last with a score of 1.1.

Of the other emerging economies, China is ranked 78 with Brazil (69) and Russia (154). Germany is 15 in the list, while France is 25 and Japan 17.

The 2010 CPI shows that nearly three quarters of the 178 countries in the index score below five, on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (perceived to have low levels of corruption), indicating a serious corruption problem. The 2010 results are drawn from 13 surveys and assessments published between January 2009 and September 2010.

The committee, however, saw an improvement in scores from 2009 to 2010 for Bhutan, Chile, Ecuador, Macedonia, Gambia, Haiti, Jamaica, Kuwait, and Qatar.