Global Cost of Corruption Estimated by World Economic Forum is 5% of Global GDP: Y.K. Jethwa

Bhubaneswar: The cost of corruption as estimated by the World Economic Forum is 5% of Global GDP, said Y.K. Jethwa, Director Vigilance here on Thursday.

Attending the function organized by National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), Bhubaneswar as Chief Guest on the occasion of Vigilance Awareness Week-2022, Jethwa highlighted that corruption affected everyone in the society and all need to join hands to fight against corruption.

The Vigilance Director urged the students and faculty of NISER to focus on technological research and applications to aid in prevention, detection and punishment of corruption.

He discussed at length on the role of technology as a double in relation to corruption through in the fight against corruption.

Jethwa noted that technology is a double edged tool which is also misused for corrupt practices. Technology is helping the corrupt in ensuring anonymity, in asset generation in virtual medium such as Crypto and other digital assets, masked and secretive communication through the dark web, high speed non physical digital transactions carried out remotely, and so on. Simultaneously, technology is increasingly being tapped to enhance transparency, efficiency and accountability in business processes and governance.

He narrated how Big Data, Data Mining and Forensic Tools can help predict, prevent, detect and deter corruption. Technological applications are increasingly helping in capturing Big Data. CCTV, Biometrics, Digital Identifications, Laser Technology, Satellite Imagery, GIS and various other technological advancements need to be exploited further to capture Big Data. The other important area of technological applications is in Data Mining and analysis of Big Data. There is need for dedicated soft wares to analyse Big Data to identify anomalies, outliers, patterns and hence detect corruption, malpractice fraud and leakages.

Jethwa urged the students and faculty to focus on such technological applications and devise tools and innovations to aid in preventing, detecting and punishing corruption.

Dr Sudhakar Panda, Director, NISER chaired the programme.

Awards and prizes were given to winners of essay/debate competition organized to commemorate the Vigilance Awareness Week.