India moves up slightly in clean business index; trails Bhutan

Public servants across the world are prone to taking bribes - but where is a buck just part of doing business, and where is it likely to land you in jail? This is the question asked in Transparency International's (TI) latest study of corruption in 175 nations.

India has showed some improvement in addressing corruption this year, ranking 85th among 175 countries as against 94th last year, TI said today. Bhutan was ahead of India with a ranking of 30.

In results that are not very surprising, Denmark retained its position as the least corrupt country in 2014 with a score of 92, while North Korea and Somalia shared the last place, scoring just 8.

In India's neighbourhood, China moved to 100th place, down from 80th last year, while Pakistan and Nepal were jointly in 126th position. Bangladesh was 145th and. Sri Lanka was ranked 85th with India. Afghanistan was at a bleak 172.

The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) report said, "The CPI score for India increased by 2 points in 2014 from its 2013 score, helping India's rank move up to 85 in 2014 from 94 in 2013". India's score stood at 38 as compared to 36 last year.

The report noted that the CPI possibly captured the anti-corruption mandate on which India's new government was elected, and the possibility of some reforms in this area.

"However, the data used for CPI mostly was collected prior to the change of government and therefore this will not reflect directly into any of the CPI sources," it said.

To calculate India's position this year, 9 out of 12 independent data sources specialising in governance and business climate analysis were also used.

These included Bertelsmann Foundation, World Bank and World Economic Forum. They helped in measuring perceptions of corruption in public sector and cross country comparability.

Chairman of Transparency International India S K Agarwal said, ''The new government has got a full majority on an agenda of good governance, and now it's high time to enact all pending anti-corruption bills, including the right of citizens for time-bound delivery of goods and services and redressing of grievances.''