The country, which scored 3.3 out of 10 in the perceived level of corruption, moved up to the 70th rank from 88 last year.
NEW DELHI: Corruption was less prevalent in India this year than a year ago, which helped the country earn a better ranking in the Corruption Perception Index released by Transparency International (TI) on Monday.
The country, which scored 3.3 out of 10 in the perceived level of corruption, moved up to the 70th rank from 88 last year, while Finland emerged as the least corrupt nation with an overwhelming score of 9.6.
Haiti finished at the bottom of the index (163rd rank) with a score of 1.8.
"The marginal improvement in India has been brought about by the untiring efforts of the civil society organisations and the Right to Information Act, which came into effect on 12 October 2005, is a big step toward countering corruption," said a release by Transparency International India on the occasion.
While Pakistan is ranked at 142 with a score of 2.2, US is ranked 20th in the list with a score of 7.3 along with Chile and Belgium at the same position.
India shares the 70th rank with nine other countries including China, Brazil and Egypt, all of whom have scored an identical 3.3 in a scale of 10 (lesser score implying more corruption).
TI's Corruption Perception Index is a composite index which draws its conclusion from multiple expert opinion survey polls that compiled perceptions of public sector corruption from across 163 countries.
A total of 12 agencies acted as source to the survey which includes World Bank, Political and Economic Risk Consultancy, UN Economic Commissions for Africa, World Economic Forum and World Markets Research Centre.
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