India fighting corruption well: UNDP

[Metropolitanjury]

The initiatives like Right to Information (RTI) and e-governance, computerisation of judicial records for clearing massive backlog of legal cases in courts, the provision of social audit in the implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), computerisation of land records in Karnataka have been instrumental in curbing corruption in the country to a large extent, a UNDP report on Thursday said.

The report highlights series of initiatives taken by the Central and state governments for confronting corruption. “India has implemented a number of key options to combat corruption like introducing RTI and e-governance to make administration more transparent,” the UNDP Asia Pacific Human Development report titled ‘tackling corruption and transforming lives’ has said.

The report said for the poorer section, the expansion of e-governance in India offers fresh opportunities for more open governance and breaking the monopoly of corrupt officials. However, in a special contribution to the report, RH Raghavan, former director of the CBI argues that amid all these few positive initiatives, the visible signs of increased ethical standards are few.

The report said corruption risk also exist in micro finance, which has helped nearly 100 million people in Asia through small loans to improve their economic potential. India along with Philippines and Indonesia still have high perceived levels of corruption despite very open media and other initiatives, said the report.

By Ms.Bobby Aanand, Metropolitan Jury.