India lost $125 billion in illegal outflows between 2000 and 2008: study

India lost around $125 billion in illegal capital outflows in the nine-year period between 2000 and 2008 as both corrupt political and corporate elite continued to siphon off funds intended to aid the poorest in the country.

India ranked fifth in Asia with the largest portion of total illegal outflows of almost half-a-trillion dollars in 2008 alone, according to a new report released by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington DC-based research and advocacy organisation which promotes transparency in the international financial system.

India's economy continued to grow at an average rate of over eight per cent between 2004 and 2009, but the widespread corruption and continuing outflows ensured that the poor in India, as in the case of most other developing countries, continued to remain poor, GFI said in its report.

GFI also noted that recent efforts in India to challenge this corrupt affront on humanity have been met with severe violence.

Much of the funds flowing out are generated at home within India and then sent illegally abroad. So the growth of corruption and India's underground economy contributes significantly to illicit financial flows from the country, GFI noted.

"The developed world's continued passive acceptance of illegal money sets a poor precedence for reigning in such activities. By implication, it says we will not do all that we can to help the poor people of every nation to break free of a toxic cycle of corruption that often leads to life-long poverty and sometimes - if you try to stand up against such corruption - death."