Corruption in India is an issue that affects the economy of central, state, and local government agencies and is frequently blamed for hindering the country's economic development. A study conducted by Transparency International in 2020 recorded that 39% of Indians had paid a bribe to a public official to get a job done in the preceding twelve months. In the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (released in early 2026), India scored 39 on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean") and was ranked 91st out of 182 countries, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector. India's score has fluctuated only slightly (between 36 and 41) since the current version of the Index was introduced in 2012, indicating a perceived lack of significant progress in tackling public sector corruption. For comparison with regional scores, the best score among those countries of the Asia Pacific region that appeared in the 2025 Index was 84, the average score was 45 and the worst score was 15. For comparison with worldwide scores, the best score was 89 (ranked 1), the average score was 42, and the worst score was 9 (ranked 181, in a two-way tie).
Various factors contribute to corruption, including officials siphoning money from government social welfare schemes. Examples include the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the National Rural Health Mission. Other areas of corruption include India's trucking industry, which is forced to pay billions of rupees in bribes annually to numerous regulatory and police stops on interstate highways.
The news media has widely published allegations of corrupt Indian citizens stashing millions of rupees in Swiss banks. Swiss authorities denied these allegations, which were later proven in 2015–2016. In July 2021, India's Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) replied to Right To Information (RTI) requests stating undeclared assets of Rs 20,078 crore identified by them in India and abroad following the investigation till June 2021.
The causes of corruption in India include excessive regulations, complicated tax and licensing systems, numerous government departments with opaque bureaucracy and discretionary powers, monopoly of government-controlled institutions on certain goods and services delivery, and the lack of transparent laws and processes. There are significant variations in the level of corruption and in the government's efforts to reduce corruption across India.
Politics
Corruption in India is a problem that has serious implications for protecting the rule of law and ensuring access to justice. , 120 of India's 542 parliament members were accused of various crimes, under India's First Information Report procedure wherein anyone can allege another to have committed a crime.
Many of the biggest scandals have involved high-level government officials, including Cabinet Ministers and Chief Ministers, such as the 2010 Commonwealth Games scam (), the Adarsh Housing Society scam, the Mining Scandal in Karnataka, and the Cash for Vote scams along with the Electoral Bond scam. There have also been decades of numerous state and local level scams, for example the Saradha group financial scandal, the Narada sting operation, the Rose Valley financial scandal, the West Bengal teacher recruitment scam, the 2024 Sandeshkhali violence and the 2024 Pune Porsche car crash.
In February 2024, the Supreme Court of India struck down the Electoral Bonds Scheme as unconstitutional, citing that it violated the right to information and facilitated 'quid pro quo' arrangements between corporations and political parties. Data released subsequently by the State Bank of India revealed that several companies under investigation by federal agencies had purchased significant amounts of bonds.
Lack of accountability A 2021 U.S. State Department report asserts that the law provides criminal penalties for corruption by officials at all levels of government in India. However, there were numerous reports of government corruption during the year. Corruption was present at multiple levels of government in India and officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. While investigations and prosecutions of individual cases took place, lax enforcement, a shortage of trained police officers, and an overburdened and under-resourced court system contributed to a low number of convictions.
The corresponding 2023 and 2025 U.S. State Department reports struck a slightly more hopeful note, saying that the government generally implemented anti-corruption laws effectively. However, reports of corruption persisted, both by whistleblowers to the national anti-corruption ombudsman and by NGOs.
All three of the 2021, 2023 and 2025 reports singled out bribes to expedite services such as police protection, school admission, water supply, and government assistance as problem areas.
Bureaucracy
Bribery A 2005 study done by Transparency International in India found that more than 62% of the people had firsthand experience of paying bribes or peddling influence to get services performed in a public office. Taxes and bribes are common between state borders; Transparency International estimates that truckers annually pay in bribes.
Both government regulators and police share in bribe money, to the tune of 43% and 45% each, respectively. The route stoppages at checkpoints and entry points can take up to 11 hours per day. About 60% of these (forced) stoppages on roads by concerned authorities such as government regulators, police, forest, sales and excise, octroi and weighing and measuring departments are for extorting money. The loss in productivity due to these stoppages is an important national concern; the number of truck trips could increase by 40%, if forced delays are avoided. According to a 2007 World Bank published report, the travel time for a Delhi-Mumbai trip could be reduced by about two days per trip if the corruption and associated regulatory stoppages to extract bribes were eliminated.
A 2009 survey of the leading economies of Asia, revealed Indian bureaucracy is not only the least efficient among Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Philippines and Indonesia, but that working with India's civil servants was a "slow and painful" process.Indian bureaucracy ranked worst in Asia: Survey The Times of India, 3 June 2009.
Land and property
Officials are alleged to be stealing state property. In cities and villages throughout India, groups of municipal and other government officials, elected politicians, judicial officers, real estate developers, and law enforcement officials, acquire, develop and sell land in illegal ways.K.R. Gupta and J.R. Gupta, Indian Economy, Vol #2, Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2008, . Snippet: ... the land market already stands subverted and an active land mafia has already been created ... Such officials and politicians are very well protected by the immense power and influence they possess. Apart from this, slum-dwellers who are allotted houses under several housing schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awaas Yojana, Rajiv Awas Yojna, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, etc., rent out these houses to others, to earn money due to severe unemployment and lack of a steady source of income.
Tendering processes and awarding contracts
A 2006 report claimed that state-funded construction activities in Uttar Pradesh, such as road building, were dominated by construction mafias, consisting of cabals of corrupt public works officials, materials suppliers, politicians and construction contractors. Snippet: ... The road sector has always been the main source of income for the mafia. They either ask their men directly to grab the contracts or allow an outsider to take the contract after accepting a hefty commission
Problems caused by corruption in government-funded projects are not limited to the state of Uttar Pradesh. The World Bank study finds that public distribution programs and social spending contracts have proven to be a waste due to corruption.
For example, the government implemented the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) on 25 August 2005. The Central government outlay for this welfare scheme is in FY 2010–2011.Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act . Govt of India After 5 years of implementation, in 2011, the programme was widely criticised as no more effective than other poverty reduction programmes in India. Despite its best intentions, MGNREGA faces the challenges of corrupt officials reportedly pocketing money on behalf of fake rural employees, poor quality of the program infrastructure, and unintended destructive effect on poverty.
Science and technology CSIR, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, has been flagged in ongoing efforts to root out corruption in India. Established with the directive to do translational research and create real technologies, CSIR has been accused of transforming into a ritualistic, overly-bureaucratic organisation that does little more than churn out papers.
There are many issues facing Indian scientists, with some calling for transparency, a meritocratic system, and an overhaul of the bureaucratic agencies that oversee science and technology. Sumit Bhaduri stated, "The challenges of turning Indian science into part of an innovation process are many. Many competent Indian scientists aspire to be ineffectual administrators (due to administrative power and political patronage), rather than do the kind of science that makes a difference". Prime minister Manmohan Singh spoke at the 99th Indian Science Congress and commented on the state of the sciences in India, after an advisory council informed him there were problems with "the overall environment for innovation and creative work" and a "war-like" approach was needed.
Preferential award of mineral resources
In August 2011, an iron ore mining scandal became a media focus in India. In September 2011, an elected member of Karnataka's legislative assembly, Janardhana Reddy, was arrested on charges of corruption and illegal mining of iron ore in his home state. It was alleged that his company received a preferential allotment of resources, organised and exported billions of dollars' worth of iron ore to Chinese companies in recent years without paying any royalty to the state government exchequer of Karnataka or the central government of India, and that these Chinese companies made payments to shell companies registered in Caribbean and north Atlantic tax havens controlled by Reddy.
It was also alleged that corrupt government officials in charge of regulating mining, port facilities and shipping cooperated with Reddy. These officials received monthly bribes in exchange for enabling the illegal export of mined iron ore to China. Such scandals have led to a demand in India for a consensually driven action plan to eradicate the piracy of India's mineral resources by an illegal, politically corrupt government officials-business nexus, removal of incentives for illegal mining, and the creation of incentives for legal mining and domestic use of iron ore and steel manufacturing.
Driver licensing A study conducted between 2004 and 2005 found that India's driver licensing procedure was a bureaucratic process and allows drivers to be licensed despite their low driving ability through promoting the usage of agents. Individuals with the willingness to pay make a significant payment above the official fee and most of these extra payments are made to agents, who act as an intermediary between bureaucrats and applicants.