Although Transparency International's Global Corruption Perception Index showed that India has improved, corruption persists despite the passage of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988. Analyse (200 Words)
Refer - Business Standard
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 5 years
KEY POINTS
· The results of the 2019 India Corruption Survey conducted by Transparency International point to a five percentage point drop in corruption levels.
· The striking point about the more granular findings of the survey is that the bulk of the corruption is at local levels.
· Thus, even if we assume that government is able to make the central government corruption-free, the malaise will persist at the lower levels of the country’s governance structure — at state and local government levels.
· This has critical implications for India’s future as an investment destination, since local administrations are, so to speak, the business end of the ease of doing business environment.
· The survey also contradicts the common notion that posits technology interface as the optimum bulwark against corruption, especially in citizen-facing services.
· Some 44 per cent of respondents said they paid a bribe in an office that had computerisation, and 16 per cent said that they paid a bribe despite the office having a functional CCTV system.
· That Telangana, one of the first states to introduce a citizens’ portal for a slew of common goods and services, figures as India’s fifth-most corrupt state tells its own story.
· Corruption persists in India despite the passage of the Prevention of Corruption Act, which deems a bribe an offence attracting seven years’ imprisonment or a fine or both.
· This situation points to the inherently weak institutional foundations of governance in India, which creates a vicious circle of venality.
· The absence of robust systems to punish bribe givers enables them to enhance their powers by becoming centres of routine approvals and clearances.
· They may offer investors a degree of certainty in place of the tortuous uncertainties of dealing with wilfully inefficient local officials but it involves an unhealthy element of discrimination and arbitrariness in governance, which are embedded with risks for investors.
Chinna 5 years
Kindly review... thank you...
IAS Parliament 5 years
Good attempt. Keep Writing.
Abhilasha 5 years
IAS Parliament 5 years
Need better understanding. Try to focus more corruption at lower levels and mention about the improvement of India in Global perception index. Keep Writing.
