India heads down as Scam score rises

The end of the new decade's first year has clearly been rocked by scams. This year the country has been rocked by five major scams—four in the last four months.

The end of the new decade's first year has clearly been rocked by scams. This year the country has been rocked by five major scams—four in the last four months.

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India has slipped to 87th spot in Transparency International's latest ranking of nations based on the level of corruption, with the global watchdog asserting that perceptions about corruption in the country increased in the wake of the scam-tainted Commonwealth Games.

As per a Global Financial Integrity, Washington-based research group, India is losing about $16 billion (Rs72,496 crore) a year to outflows related to tax avoidance by wealthy individuals and companies, plus corruption and bribery.

Delhi-based think-tank National Institute of Public Finance and Policy had attempted an estimate of the black money in circulation in the country in 1983-84 which estimated that black money in circulation at that point of time could have been in between Rs31,584 crore and Rs36,786 crore.