-Reuters   Chinese and Russian firms are the most likely to pay bribes while operating abroad, and the most corrupt sectors are public works contracts and construction, according to Transparency International's latest "Bribe Payers' index". China and Russia rank bottom, in 27th and 28th place respectively, in the 2011 index released on Wednesday, while the Dutch, Swiss, Belgians, Germans and Japanese get the top scores. Britain and the United States rank eighth and...

-PTI   When it comes to companies bribing public officials when doing business overseas, India's score has improved the most in a global index, rights group Transparency International said on Wednesday.  Nevertheless, India still ranks near the bottom of the global Bribe Payers Index, as there was a high likelihood of Indian companies paying bribes abroad.  In a list of 28 countries, India has been ranked 19th, while China and Russia fared the worst,...

Prime Minister​ Manmohan Singh said that the government plans to strengthen anti-graft laws in India by making Bribery in the private sector a criminal offence. “We are considering changes in our laws to criminalize private sector Bribery,” Singh said, while speaking at the Biennial Conference of CBI and state anti-corruption bureaux on Friday. Singh also indicated that the Central Bureau of Investigation​ (CBI) will continue as the premier investigative agency even after...

-IANS   The task of ensuring transparency and evolving a mechanism to check corrupt practices had acquired urgency like never before, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Friday while stressing that the Lokpal bill was at the top of his government's agenda. The Prime Minister, addressing the biennial conference of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and state anti-corruption bureaus, added that the government welcomed inputs from civil society and NGOs on how...

-NDTV Profit   Some of India’s biggest and most-respected entrepreneurs have released an open letter to the government. The group which includes Wipro’s Azim Premji, Anu Aga of Thermax and HDFC's Deepak Parekh, refers to the anti-corruption Lokpal Bill that is meant to be introduced soon in Parliament. The industrialists write, “The Lokpal Bill is only one small but critical step in the national task of weeding out the plague of corruption...