NEW DELHI: The cloud of Commonwealth Games continues to hang over India, with Transparency International reporting that the perceptions about corruption in the country had increased in the wake of the scam-tainted Games.Following the CWG, there has been a marginal decline in India’s integrity score to 3.3 in 2010 from 3.5 in 2007 and 3.4 in 2008 and 2009 on a scale from zero (perceived to be the highly corrupt) to 10 (low levels of corruption) India’s rank on TI’s list of corrupt nations is 87th out of 178 countries surveyed this year, indicating a serious corruption malaise. “It is an indication that the country continues to be perceived as more corrupt than in the past,” a TI press statement said.The direct impact of controversy-tainted CWG on perceptions about the country show that the hullabaloo about corruption is not just a domestic problem. “The perception about corruption in India seems to have increased primarily due to alleged corrupt practices in the recently-held CWG in Delhi,” the statement said, citing even a statement of former CVC Pratyush Sinha.
“India has gone down in the ranking as well as integrity score and this is a matter of concern and regret. It appears that the level of governance has not improved despite India having a skilled set of administrators,” TI India chairman PS Bawa said – TOI
