India

ranks second in Brainbench certification style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">

Supports

the fact that India is the number one offshore destination in the

world style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">

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BANGALORE:

Brainbench certification in India surged 300 percent in the past two years as

the country leads US in six skill areas, including all three Java programming

competencies

According to

Brainbench's 2005 Global Skills report, India is second to the US. Drawing on

the employment skills certifications of over 300,000 people from 179 countries,

the report said that the US, India, and Russian Federation have consistently

been the countries with the most Brainbench certifications.

This

indicates that they may represent the largest pockets of competent and available

IT resources, the report said.

“The US

accounted for the largest number of skill certifications. However,

certifications in India increased over 300 percent in the past two years and

India led the US in six skill areas, including all three Java programming

competencies.”

Global Skills

Report 2005 is Brainbench's third and most comprehensive report since the first

version was released in 2001. With more than 5.5 million registered users and

more than 600 different assessments, Brainbench measures individual skills,

abilities and personality traits that drive a company's bottom-line success.

This year,

the scope of the assessment library expanded beyond the initial IT focus to

encompass today's areas of need: call center service expertise, health care,

business management and general communication.

The 10

countries at the top of the heap in 2005 comprise 83 percent of worldwide

Brainbench certifications. Australia and Pakistan slipped out of the top 10 from

2003, replaced by the Philippines and Latvia.

The US led

the World in total Skill Certifications. The United States led in 24 out of the

30 IT categories, dominating others, in particular, in MS Excel 2002, Technical

Help Desk, MS Windows XP Desktop Administration, Computer Tech Support, and Web

Design Concepts.

style="color: black">IT hiring in

US up 11 p.c. style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">

Although the

media continues to report the loss of jobs overseas, particularly in the

technology sector, the most recent survey of IT job growth by Robert Half

International1 reports a net 11 percent increase in IT hiring in the US, the

largest in three years.

“In total

numbers, India finished second to the United States in 2005 Brainbench Global

Certifications - supporting the fact that they are the number one offshore

support country in the world,” the report said.

While the US

led IT certifications in 24 of 30 categories, India led the other six, including

all three categories pertaining to Java software development: Java 2

Fundamentals, Java 2, and Java Server Pages. India has been a hotbed of Java

development expertise since the turn of the century. But they also led

certifications in ASP.NET, the C programming language, and RDBMS concepts. For

each of these skills, India accounted for at least 37 percent of the world's

certifications.

style="color: black">Report

cautions India style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">

However, the

report does not paint a rosy future for India. India's penetration into the high

tech world has been dramatic and large-scale, the report said. For instance, Sun

Microsystems plans to double its staff in India over the next year. But, they

expect the wage advantage to gradually go away, and are increasing staff in

China, Russia, and the Czech Republic as well. This reflects forces - both

within and outside of India - that have fueled competition for India's

outsourcing dominance.

India has

initiated a new 36 percent corporate income tax on non-Indian IT firms operating

in the country. Other experts note that India's IT growth has been so rapid and

uneven that prices have risen and qualified labor availability has fallen. And

once prices go up, and the seemingly bottomless pool of labor shows limits,

things are bound to change.

Firms in Asia

have begun to directly target India's dominance as well. For example, service

providers in Pakistan are launching aggressive sales and marketing challenge in

some business sectors, and Indian firms are even building facilities in China

and the southern United States.

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"> style="color: black">The reported, quoting

Daniel Franklin,

editorial director of the Economist

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"> style="COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt">Intelligence Unit, said that

India and China have to address weaknesses in their business environment to win

more offshoring projects.

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"> style="color: black">

style="COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt">

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"> style="COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt">“India and China are already

the leading destinations for offshoring, and have the potential to win an even

bigger share of offshoring projects if they address

remaining

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"> style="COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt">weaknesses in their business

environments,” said Franklin.

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style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">CyberMedia

News

The Top 10 Across the

World

The top 10 countries, based

on total skill certifications, are listed below, along with the 2003

rankings.

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style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">Top Skills Around the

Globe

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">The most popular skills for

IT job function are listed below. 

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