What is the Actual Meaning of Corruption?

corruption can be summarised as the abuse of power, where people in positions of power behave dishonestly, or outside the rules, to gain personal advantage for themselves, or for their peers, friends, and associates.

Corrupt systems are very easy to identify, as life for the ordinary people, without the right social and political connections, is always difficult.

● Also Jaago Re! One Billion Votes, an organization founded by Tata Tea recently, are working on other social issues including corruption.

● Government of India’s RTI site, the Right to Information Act (2005) and equivalent acts in the states, have reduced corruption upto a level and opened a platform for grievances.

corrupt countries are usually poor, and its always poor people who lose out in such countries. The rich people who come from these countries, even if they gained their wealth through integrity, are usually looked down at by other countries because of how their countries are imagined.

According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, Afghanistan comes 166th out of 168 counties, exceeded in corruption only by North Korea and Somalia.

Nigeria was only in 136th place.

The least corrupt countries were found to be Denmark, Finland, Sweden and New Zealand.

The United Kingdom was in 10th place, equal with Germany and Luxembourg.

Pakistan is a good example of a corrupt country, where the elite are in charge, where powerful families, from army, political, industrial, bureaucratic backgrounds, form a corrupt tier, as power is centralised in their hands. I

Corruption is a deviation from normal human behaviour in a geopolitical setting whereby causing the derailment of individual and
institutional accountability, transparency and natural justice.

It is estimated that around one trillion US dollars is paid in bribes each year worldwide.

Corruption is
a barometer of a nations' development and decline which determines its
stanching stature and estimation among the country of nation-states. But of
late, corruption has become a way of national life and has already been
institutionalized beyond the comprehension of ordinary human
imagination.

. Both Nigeria and Afghanistan have signed the UN Convention Against Corruption. Seventeen countries have not signed it.

“Corruption is nature’s way of restoring our faith in democracy.” (Peter Ustinov)

Although, no statistical data can possibly be compiled to assess the
extent of corruption amongst our political leaders yet in view of the
experience many of us have had with the working of our bureaucracy, it is
hardly necessary to convince ourselves of the pervasiveness of this
phenomenon.

So far this year, the term “corruption scandal” has been used 279 times in the UK national press. Last year the figure for the same period was 140.

Corruption is a value loaded term and in a general sense may
include a wide range of activities within its ambit.

The tax havens of the British Virgin Islands and Panama were not invited to the global Conference.

a
particular act may be a 'corrupt act' but it may not be so from sociological,
criminological or legal standards

1“Corruption wins not more than honesty.” (Shakespeare, Henry VIII)

an act of corruption in a specified time frame, whereas the same behaviour
might not be an act of corruption in another specified time frame

Corruption has been a part of human societies since the oldest of times. Corruption, fraud, embezzlement, theft, bribes, and kickbacks are all forms in which people try to increase their income at the cost of others. Beginning in the latter half of the 1990s, an increased recognition of these costs led to many international and nongovernmental organizations demanding that political and business leaders demonstrate high standards of honesty, ethics, and social responsibility.

for the purpose of present study, the term 'Corruption'
may be defined and discussed nature of corruption, definition of
corruption, the sociological, criminological and legal standards only.

This in turn led to a concerted fight against corruption, money laundering, and black markets around the world as well as to the recognition of the importance of governance.