India one of the five countries having half of $1 trillion illicit financial flows, has poor World Peace Index: Report

A new international report has noted a worrying trend for India. Titled “World Peace Index 2016”, the report says, India is one of the five countries in the world – alongside China, Russia, Mexico and Malaysia – which are involved in most of the illicit financial flows to other countries.
Referring to an International Finance Corporation (IFC) indicator of illicit financial flows for 145 relevant countries, the report says, “Whilst this measure is an estimate and cannot show the granularity required by the indicator, it does allow for prioritisation of efforts.”
The report, brought out by non-profit think tank with offices in New York and Sidney, the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), says, “According to the IFC, of the over US$1 trillion in illicit financial flows in 2013, over half was from five countries. With the exception of Malaysia, these countries are all in the 20 largest economies in the world.”
Ranking in Global Peace Index (GPI) of 163 countries, the report has placed India as one of the worst in the world at 141th position, a slight “improvement” from the 143rd position it occupied a year ago. However, it finds that the overall GPI score of India has deteriorated in a year from 2.504 to 2.566. The improvement in ranking, therefore, has more to do with a higher deterioration in GPI of other countries, especially of the Middle East, it suggests.

The GPI score is calculated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 having the performance, and 5 worst. Thus, Iceland, with a score of 1.192, was found as the best performing country, and Syria with a score of 3.308 as the worst.

Referring to the situation in South Asia, the report says, “Overall, the individual overall scores of Afghanistan, Nepal and India deteriorated, while for Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, scores improved modestly.” It adds, “The influence of the Taliban from Afghanistan has been particularly strong. As a result, Pakistan remains second from the bottom in South Asia.”

World Peace Index

As for India, it says, the country “scores for ongoing domestic and international conflict and militarisation have deteriorated slightly.” It calculates, India’s “violence containment cost” as percentage of GDP is a whopping 9 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP). It adds, "India increased its number of military personnel, from 2.15 to 2.72 million, a 27 per cent increase."
At the same time, it notes, “The country remains vulnerable to acts of terror and security threats at its shared border with Pakistan. As such, the number of deaths caused by externally organised terror strikes has risen over the year.”
On Sri Lanka, it says, it has “improved its ties with India, which is reflected in an improvement in its score for relationships with neighbouring countries. Military expenditure has also been cut as threats to internal stability gradually dissipate, but the country’s impact of terrorism score deteriorated slightly.”
According to the report, “The world became slightly less peaceful in 2016, with the average GPI country score deteriorating by 0.53 per cent.” It adds, “Over the past year, 81 countries improved their peacefulness, while 79 countries deteriorated.”
It says, “Violent crime improved in 13 countries and deteriorated in only five. The largest absolute change occurred in Libya. The impact of terrorism deteriorated in 77 countries, while improving in 48. Only 37 of the 163 countries measured had no impact of terrorism. The largest deterioration in this indicator was in the Middle East and North Africa.”

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