India has been ranked 81st in the global corruption perception index for 2017, released by Transparency International, which named the country among the "worst offenders" in terms of graft and press freedom in the Asia Pacific region. The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, placed India at the 81st place. In  2016 India was in placed in the 79th position among 176 countries. The index uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. India's score in the latest ranking, however, remained unchanged at 40. In 2015, the score was 38. The neighbouring Pakistan was placed at 117th position with their score at 32. Transparency International further said, "in some countries across the region (Asia Pacific), journalists, activists, opposition leaders and even staff of law enforcement or watchdog agencies are threatened, and in the worst cases, even murdered".
"Philippines, India and the Maldives are among the worst regional offenders in this respect. These countries score high for corruption and have fewer press freedoms and higher numbers of journalist deaths," it added.

India has been ranked 81st in the global corruption perception index for 2017, released by Transparency International, which named the country among the "worst offenders" in terms of graft and press freedom in the Asia Pacific region. The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, placed India at the 81st place. In  2016 India was in placed in the 79th position among 176 countries. The index uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. India's score in the latest ranking, however, remained unchanged at 40. In 2015, the score was 38. The neighbouring Pakistan was placed at 117th position with their score at 32. Transparency International further said, "in some countries across the region (Asia Pacific), journalists, activists, opposition leaders and even staff of law enforcement or watchdog agencies are threatened, and in the worst cases, even murdered".
"Philippines, India and the Maldives are among the worst regional offenders in this respect. These countries score high for corruption and have fewer press freedoms and higher numbers of journalist deaths," it added.