Facts on Corruption

Zee Media Bureau

The Washington-based Global Financial Integrity in November 2010 report estimates that over a 60-year period, India lost $213 billion in illicit financial flows beginning in 1948; adjusted for inflation, estimated to be about $8 billion per year ($7 per capita per year).

As of December 2008 under India`s First Information Report procedure (wherein anyone can allege another of committing a crime) — 120 of India`s 523 parliament members were accused of crimes.

A study done in 2005 by Transparency International in India found that more than 62% of the people had firsthand experience of paying bribe or peddling influence to get a job done in a public office.

According to Transparency International estimates truckers pay 22,200 crores (US$ 4.5 billion) annually in bribes.

A 2009 survey of the leading economies of Asia, revealed Indian bureaucracy to be not just least efficient out of Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Philippines and Indonesia; further it was also found that working with India`s civil servants was a "slow and painful" process.

In Uttar Pradesh, road building is dominated by construction mafias, which are groupings of corrupt public works suppliers officials, materials, politicians and construction contractors, claimed state-funded construction activities’ 2006 report.

A study conducted between 2004 and 2005 found that India`s driver licensing procedure was a hugely distorted bureaucratic process that allows drivers to be licensed despite their low driving ability through promoting the usage of agents.

Professor Bibek Debroy and Laveesh Bhandari claim in their book ‘Corruption in India: The DNA and RNA’ that the public officials in India may be cornering as much as Rs921.22 billion ($18.42 billion), or 1.26 per cent of the GDP, through corruption.

In its 2010 India Corruption Study report, CMS India claims that socio-economically weaker section of the Indian society is most adversely affected by government corruption – these include the rural and urban poor.

Swiss National Bank estimates that the total amount of deposits in all Swiss banks, at the end of 2010, by citizens of India were CHF 1.95 billion (INR 92.95 billion, US$ 2.1 billion).

Total loss in the 2G spectrum case was estimated to Rs1.76 lakh crore.

India is ranked 23rd out of 41 countries in the Asia–Pacific region, and its overall score is below the world average. Compiled by: SHASHANK VERMA