In India, Scams Cost More than 'Defence' Budget

Bangalore: India has constantly been on the radar for corruption. The country ranked 94th on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) out of 176 nations last year and it scored 36 out of 100 on a scale of 0 to 100, zero being highly corrupt and 100 being very clean, as per a survey.

The country could have progressed greatly if the amount of money lost in scams and corruption would be used to provide food to millions of hungry people. While the entire system is marred with corruption, these scams also taint the image of political parties.

Recently, the submission of affidavit by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to the Supreme Court on coal block allocations revealed that the status report was changed after sharing it with the government. This clearly indicates the amount of corruption that the country is witnessing.

Considering the top 5 scams in India, namely the 2G Spectrum Scam, Commonwealth Games Scam, Telgi Scam, Satyam Scam and Bofors Scam it is seen that it equals to 1.37 times India’s annual defence expenditure, reported Dailybhaskar.com.

In the 2G Spectrum scam that shocked the nation, the CAG estimated the scam amount to about 1.76 lakh crores. While in case of the Commonwealth games scam over 70,000 crore rupees was spent on the games but less than half that amount was spent on sporting infrastructure and athletes. The athletes instead were asked to relocate into shabby and unkempt apartments just 10 days before the games. 

Also Read: 5 Whistleblowers Who Blew the Lid off Scams
Also Read: India's Seven Major Defence Scandals