India ranks 40 in WEF Global IT survey

Priya Padmanabhan

BANGALORE: India is ranked 40 on the Global Information Technology report 2005-'06's Networked Readiness Index.

The report, which covered 115 countries, assesses the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on the development process and the competitiveness of nations.

The United States topped the rankings for the third time in five years, maintaining its position as a leader in the area of innovation and confirming its position as an ICT powerhouse. Singapore was ranked second in the survey.

Networked readiness index (NRI) is the degree of preparedness of a nation or community to participate in and benefit from ICT developments. Some of the key ICT indicators considered include numbers of telephone mainlines, personal computers, and Internet users.

The report notes “recent strong shifts” in the global ICT landscape. Countries such as India have transformed their economies, thanks to the ICT revolution. Ireland and Israel have emerged as centers of software development.

Asian Tigers like Taiwan, India and Korea improved their ratings this year. Taiwan made a huge jump and saw itself make it to the top ten countries with a ranking of number seven. Its meteoric rise as an ICT powerhouse in the last three decades is attributed to intelligent public policies and public-private synergies in the ICT sector. India broadly maintains its position with respect to last year (at number 40) while China dropped nine positions to 50th place, widening the performance gap with respect to India.

The highest ranking Latin American countries were Chile (29) Brazil (52) and Mexico (55). Compared with last year's generalized decreasing trend, the region displayed a more varied performance this year, with several countries markedly improving their positions, notably Chile (up 6), Mexico (up 5), El Salvador (up 11) and Argentina (up 5). This encouraging development is unfortunately accompanied by a further slide of countries such as Brazil (down 6), Costa Rica (down 8) and Guatemala (down 10).

NR Narayana Murthy, who is one of the authors in the report spoke of the relevance of ICT. “ICT is enabling countries like India to leverage cost and factor advantages, and evolve new dynamic strategies to drive productivity growth.”

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