Introduction

Corruption is the moral or spiritual deviation from an ideal. It undermines political, social and economic stability and damages trust in institutions and authorities. It also fuels transnational crime by aiding terrorists and organized criminals. Corruption is of particular concern for the worlds police and judicial systems, as corruption in one country can compromise an entire international investigation. Corruption affects all regions of the world and all levels of society, but the impact is greatest in developing countries. .World Bank estimated in 2004 that every year, every year, developing countries lose USD 50 million to 100 million through corrupt acts (World Bank estimate, 2004). In modern times, corruption of funds, money and resources are occurring at such a high extent that it plays an active role in even our day to day lives. A 2008 study conducted by Transparency International in India found that about 40% of Indians had first-hand experience of paying bribes or using a contact to get a job done in public office and in 2012 it has ranked India 94th out of 176 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. India has seen extensive amounts of corruption in various fields. From the 2g scam to common wealth politics and industry have worked together very well when it came down to corruption and illegal flow of money. Some industries tend to have relatively higher instances of bribery and corruption than others, primarily due to the link they have with multiple parties both in the government as well as private realm. We asked respondents to rate the industries they perceived as most corrupt. Approximately 50 percent of the respondents are of the view that real estate and construction and telecom sectors are most prone to corruption followed by the social development sector. This does not come as a surprise since in all these sectors government and political intervention is considered higher. Large capital investments, multi-level approvals, complex processes and huge projects gives immense opportunity for corruption in these sectors. Anti-Corruption activities have been actively organized both by the government and mostly by NGOs and public pressure groups. On one hand we have IAC and Lok Satta Movement and on the other organizations like the Bharat Swabhiman fight vigorously against corrupt officials and practices. While RTI was definitely a big step forward there is still a lot a country like India can and should do to combat the ill effects of corruption.

This report discusses not just the disadvantages of corruption. (PUT IN SOME 20-30 WORDS)

Corruption Recent news Various governmental scams have been reported and come into light in the recent years involving billions of tax payer money. By far one the largest in probably the 2G spectrum scam involved politicians and government officials in India illegally undercharging mobile telephony companies for frequency allocation licenses, which they would then use to create 2G subscriptions for cell phones. The he Comptroller and Auditor General of India valued the shortfall between the money collected and the money that the law mandated to be collected is estimated to be 1766.45 billion (US$33 billion). The original plan for awarding licences was to follow a first-come-first-served policy to applicants. A. Raja manipulated the rules so that the first-come-first-served policy would kick in not on the basis of who applied first for a license but who complied with the conditions. On 10 January 2008, companies were given just a few hours to provide their Letters of Intent and cheques. Those allegedly tipped off by Raja were waiting with their cheques and other documents. Some of their executives were sent to jail along with the minister. In 2011, Time magazine listed the scam at number two on their "Top 10 Abuses of Power" list (just behind the Watergate scandal. Another notable scam was the Coal Allocation Scam. In a draft report issued in March 2012, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) office accused the Government of India of allocating coal blocks in an inefficient manner during the period 20042009. In its draft report in March the CAG estimated that the "windfall gain" to the allocates was 10673.03 billion (US$200 billion). The CAG Final Report tabled in Parliament put the figure at 1855.91 billion (US$34 billion). The essence of the CAG's argument is that the Government had the authority to allocate coal blocks by a process of competitive bidding, but chose not to. As a result both public sector enterprises (PSEs) and private firms paid less than they might have otherwise. Over the summer of 2012, the opposition BJP lodged a complaint resulting in a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into whether the allocation of the coal blocks was in fact influenced by corruption. While such huge scams were occurring there were various other state level scams of immense values happening across the country. Karnataka Wakf Board Land Scam, Uttar Pradesh NRHM scam and the UP Food grain scam all involves over 100 billion rupees of money. Various scams are still under investigation such as Granite scam in Tamil Nadu and Kinetic Finance Limited Scam

Such scams and corruption has very negative effects on the status of the country. According to a report by KPMG, "high-level corruption and scams are now threatening to derail the country's credibility and [its] economic boom. Corruption may lead to further bureaucratic delay and inefficiency as corrupted bureaucrats may introduce red tape to extract more bribes. Bureaucratic inefficiency also affects growth directly, such as through misallocation of investments in the economy. Additionally, corruption results in lower economic growth for a given level of income