India has slipped five positions, from 77th in 2020 to 82nd in 2021, in a global list that measures business bribery risks, PTI reported.
An anti-bribery standard setting organisation, known as TRACE, measures business bribery risk in 194 countries, territories, and autonomous and semi-autonomous regions.
According to the latest data, India ranked 82nd with a score of 44. In 2020, India had ranked 77 with a score of 45. However, India performed better than Pakistan, China, Nepal and Bangladesh. Meanwhile, Bhutan was ranked 20 places above India, at 62nd.
North Korea, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Eritrea posed the highest commercial bribery risk, while Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and New Zealand had the lowest.
How is the Score Calculated?
Every country's score is calculated on the basis of four factors - enforcement and anti-bribery deterrence, business interactions with government, government and civil service transparency, and capacity for civil society oversight which includes media's role, PTI reported.
In a statement, TRACE’s 2021 Bribery Risk Matrix said that in the past 10 years, the business bribery risk environment worsened in countries like Venezuela, Turkey, Poland, Hungary and Egypt, who had also experienced democratic backsliding.
Compared to the global trends, the organisation said, the business bribery environment risk significantly worsened in the US, over the past 5 years.
"From 2020 to 2021, all of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries saw an increase in commercial bribery risk. Over the past five years, the countries that have shown the greatest trend toward improvement in the factors underlying commercial bribery risk are Uzbekistan, the Gambia, Armenia, Malaysia and Angola," it said in a statement, as per PTI.
Countries like Peru, Vanuatu, Northare Macedonia and Montenegro also had the same score as India (44).
The Bribery Risk Maritx of TRACE measures the likelihood of bribes being demanded in the 194 countries.
In an effort to meet the needs of the business community that required a more reliable and nuanced information on commercial bribery risks across the world, the Matrix was first published in 2014.
TRACE comes up with the Matrix after assessing relevant data from international organisations like United Nations, World Bank, World Economic Forum, V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg and from other leading public interest organisations.
The organisation said that its data helps companies in assessing the probable risk of bribe demands at every nation and thereby enables them to develop design compliance and due diligence programs based on the risk.
(With inputs from PTI)
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