India ranks 76 in corruption index, Denmark is least corrupt country for a second year

India has climbed nine places to rank 76 in Transparency International's global corruption index of a list of 168 countries with Denmark at the top with a score of 91 out of 100 points and North Korea and Somalia at the bottom with unchanged scores of 8 each.

Denmark has also retained the ranking as the least corrupt country for the second consecutive year. The other top spots, from second to ninth, were occupied by Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore and Canada.

According to Transparency International's International Corruption Perceptions Index 2015, India is placed at 76th position along with Thailand, Brazil, Tunisia, Zambia and Burkina Faso out of 168 countries.

While corruption in government and other public places is still a major problem around the world, Transparency noted that more countries have improved than worsened the situation.

According to the Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, the United States and United Kingdom have reached their best rankings ever.

The index is based on expert opinions of public sector corruption, based on a range of factors like whether governmental leaders are held to account or go unpunished for corruption, the perceived prevalence of bribery, and whether public institutions respond to citizens' needs.

The US rose one spot this year to 16th place with a score of 76, tying with Austria. The UK rose three spots to place 10th, with a score of 81 that tied it with Germany and Luxembourg.

However, Transparency said there was still a lot of room for improvement even among the top ten in Europe and Central Asia, which it grouped as one region, saying ''in low-scorers Hungary, Poland and Turkey, politicians and their cronies are increasingly hijacking state institutions to shore up power.''

''It's even grimmer further down the index,'' the organisation continued. ''In Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and others, governments are restricting, if not totally stifling, civil society and free media.''

Russia sat in 119th place, tied with Azerbaijan, Guyana and Sierra Leone, although its score improved from 27 in 2014 to 29 in 2015, bringing its ranking on the list up from 136th place.

Brazil, in the midst of a massive corruption scandal at the state-owned oil company Petrobras, posted the biggest decline, falling 5 points to a score of 38 and dropping 7 positions to 76th place.

Transparency noted that in places like Guatemala, Sri Lanka and Ghana, citizen activists have ''worked hard to drive out the corrupt.''

''The 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index clearly shows that corruption remains a blight around the world,'' said Transparency head Jose Ugaz. ''But 2015 was also a year when people again took to the streets to protest corruption people across the globe sent a strong signal to those in power- it is time to tackle grand corruption.''

Overall, two-thirds of the 168 countries studied scored below 50 and the global average was 43.

Still, Transparency said it was a good sign that 64 countries improved their score while only 53 declined. The rest were unchanged.