A new low: India sinks in global corruption ranking

Journal reports according to Transparency International's corruption perception index, India scored 3.1 on a scale from zero to 10, where anything below five is bad news. Last year, India scored 3.3. The country's rank is better than Pakistan (No. 134) and Nepal, which at rank No 154 is perceived to be the most corrupt country in South Asia.

India ranked 95th in the list - lower than China, which scored 3.6 points and ranked 75th. A string of recent corruption scandals like alleged graft in the allocation of the 2G spectrum and organisation of the Commonwealth Games last year in October may have worsened India's image.

In the 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index, New Zealand came first, with Denmark and Finland tying for second place. Sweden was fourth with Singapore dropping to fifth in 2011. Norway came sixth. All the top six had a score of 9.0 or above.

Germany came in at 14th, one notch better than 2010 and tied with Japan which came in 17th in 2010. The United States ranked 24th in 2011, two notches lower than 2010. China ranked 75th, three notches higher than in 2010.

The 2011 index ranked 183 countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption. The index also assigns scores of between one and 10, one being highly corrupt and 10 incorrupt.