HVK Archives: IND. EXPR.: "In Corruption mera Bharat mahaan ..." by C. Rajghatta
IND. EXPR.: "In Corruption mera Bharat mahaan ..." by C. Rajghatta - The Indian Express
Chidanand Rajghatta
()
4 October 1996
Title : In corruption mera Bharat mahaan,
but, hum se aage hain Pakistan
Author : Chidanand Rajghatta
Publication : The Indian Express
Date : October 4, 1996
India ranks ninth in a corruption index listing 54 coun- tries, according
to a 1996 survey of business attitudes conducted by Transparency
International (T1), a Berlin- based non-governmental coalition that seeks
to curb international corruption.
Nigeria is perceived as the most corrupt country, fol- lowed by Pakistan.
They are followed by Kenya, Bangla- desh, China, Cameroon, Venezuela,
Russia, India and Indonesia.
The ten least corrupt countries are New Zealand, Denmark, Sweden, Finland,
Canada, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, Netherlands and Australia in that
order. The US is ranked 15th least corrupt.
"Corruption is a major impediment to social, political and economic
development across the globe," Peter Eigen, TI Chairman and a former World
Bank official said at a briefing here today. "But world over, governments
are now searching for constructive approaches to fight this cancer," he
added.
According to the TI source book, the corruption index is assessed by the
perceptions of people working for multi- national firms and institutions
as impacting commercial and social life. The index is not based on any
empirical evidence or an assessment of the actual level of corrup- tion
but rather an assessment about perceptions.
TI said the index was prepared using 10 sources - ranging from DRI/McGraw
Hill Global Risk Service to Economic Risk Consultants Ltd in Hong Kong to
assess the national surveys of business people. All 54 countries which
were assessed had at least four separate polls of businessmen conducted.
TI acknowledged that the figures "cannot be regarded as objective. Rather
they represent the subjec- tive evaluation of business people."
The report also rejected the commonly used argument that attempts to link
the public acceptance of bribes to culture. "TI is firm in the view that
paying bribes is wrong and has no basis for ethical or legal support in
any society," the organisation said. "That bribery may be tolerated in
some countries more than in others may say a lot more about the politics
and the legal systems than about deeper matters."
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