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A barrier India is yet to overcome

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Corruption is one barrier that India still finds impossible to overcome. Ranked the 88th most corrupt country of a total of 159 surveyed by Transparency International, even the tiny island nation of Sri Lanka and poor African countries Ghana and Rwanda fare better than India. Scoring a miserable 2.9 out of 10 — with zero being the most corrupt and 10 the cleanest — Armenia, Gabon and Bosnia Herzegovina, Mali, Iran, Moldova and Tanzania share India's dubious distinction.

Releasing the figures at a press conference here on Tuesday, working chairman of Transparency International India S.D. Sharma, said: "There has been a negligible improvement in India's score with it being ranked 2.8 last year. But the change has only been 0.1."

While it was ranked 90th in 2004, the slip is not due to an improvement in how experts perceive India's corruption levels, but due to new countries being added to the list. Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Cambodia, Fiji, Guyana, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Rwanda, Somalia, and Swaziland have been included this year. Iceland still remains the cleanest country with a score of 9.7. Finland comes a close second with 9.6.

The United States ranks 14 with a score of 5. It is perceived as more corrupt than Singapore, which has a high score of 9.4. South Korea has shown the greatest improvement in Asia this year moving from a score of 4.5 in 2004 to 5 in 2005.

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