India climbs up in corruption index

India climbed five places to the 91st position out of 182 countries and territories in the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released on Tuesday.

Denmark retained its position at the top of the index, scoring 89 points, ahead of Finland and Singapore. At the other end of the scale were South Sudan and Somalia, both registering nine points, followed by Venezuela. The leading three nations saw no change, while South Sudan’s one-point gain brought it level with Somalia. While the US has been ranked at the 29th spot, the UK bagged the 20th spot.

According to Transparency International’s latest CPI report, India’s score has gone up by one point since the previous year, while its rank has improved from the 96th position. There has been a slow growth in anti-corruption progress in the Asia Pacific as many countries witnessed public anger in the previous year, the report said.

According to the report, 2025 saw a wave of anti-corruption protests led by Gen Z, mostly in countries in the bottom half of the CPI whose scores have largely stagnated or declined over the past decade. Young people in countries such as Nepal (34) and Madagascar (25) took to the streets to criticise leaders for abusing their power while failing to deliver decent public services and economic opportunity.

“The 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index shows that corruption remains a serious threat in every part of the world, although there are limited signs of progress. “Leaders must act to tackle abuses of power and the wider factors driving this decline, such as the roll-back of democratic checks and balances, and attacks on independent civil society,” the report said.

“Anti-government protests in many parts of the world show that people are fed up with unaccountable leadership and are demanding reform,” it added.

The CPI ranks 182 countries and territories worldwide by their perceived levels of public sector corruption. The results are given on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). The report also listed India among countries “dangerous for journalists reporting on corruption”.

“When journalists are attacked or killed for investigating corruption, power cannot be held to account effectively and corruption tends to worsen. Since 2012, in non-conflict zones worldwide, 829 journalists have been murdered. “Over 90 per cent of these killings happened in countries with a CPI score lower than 50, including in Brazil (35), India (39), Mexico (27), Pakistan (28) and Iraq (28), which are particularly dangerous for journalists reporting on corruption,” it noted. “While 31 countries have significantly reduced their corruption levels since 2012, the rest are failing to tackle the problem – they have stayed stagnant or got worse during the same period. The global average has fallen to a new low of 42, while more than two-thirds of countries score below 50.

And people are paying the price, as corruption leads to under-funded hospitals, unbuilt flood defences and blights the hopes and dreams of young people,” it said.