In the recent past, India has seen an upsurge in the number and extent of scams spanning across the public as well as the private sector. These scams, to some degree, have highlighted the prevalent levels of bribery and corruption in the country. The same is being echoed in India’s ranking in the corruption perception index (CPI)-2011 of Transparency International. The corruption has been existent primarily in two forms – petty corruption, which is rampant in day to day affairs and grand corruption in the face of scams, which gets unearthed time to time. Corruption has also taken a centre stage in the sphere of civil society, which is exhibited in the civil society movements in last two years. Various agencies try to measure extent of prevalent corruption but their method is predominantly perception/survey based. CAG reports present the quantified measure of corruption in monetary term, but it is restricted to scams unearthed during audits alone. This present scenario aptly prompts at having a fact based measure which encompasses at least the major contributors of corruption in Indian society.
Methodology:
With this backdrop we have made an attempt to quantitatively measure corruption in some of the major sectors of India based on the available data sources. The main aim of the report is to provide dipstick gauge of the level of corruption in India. The estimation is carried out in two distinct parts. In the first part the report aims to estimate corruption on its own and in the second part the quantified data on scams is aggregated. The two parts are then combined to arrive at final figure of entire estimate on per year basis. The exactness of the estimate is based on the validity of the assumptions and the underlying data.
Estimations of other agencies/individuals:
In order to provide the holistic measure of corruption the report also briefly covers a perception based index of Transparency International and few other quantified estimates of the...