India has slipped four places to the 54th position in the latest ranking of the world's most networked economies, released by the World Economic Forum.
India has slipped four places to the 54th position in the latest ranking of the world's most networked economies, released by the World Economic Forum.
Neighbouring China is ahead of India at the 46th spot. The ranking of 134 countries in the Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009 topped by Denmark, are based on how nations are prepared to use Information and Communication Technology.
Among the top five most networked economies, Denmark is followed by Sweden, the US, Singapore and Switzerland.
"Of the largest Asian emerging markets, China leapfrogs 11 positions to 46th, overtaking India (which is down four positions at 54th) and the rest of the BRIC economies for the first time," the WEF said in a statement on Thursday.
Other nations in the top 10 are Finland (6th rank), Iceland (7), Norway (8), Netherlands (9) and Canada (10). The Networked Readiness Index (NRI), on which the ranking is based, takes into account three aspects such as the general business, regulatory and infrastructure environment for ICT.
Other dimensions which are looked into are the readiness of individuals, businesses and governments to use and benefit from ICT; and their actual usage of the latest information and communication technologies available.
"India is down four places this year, at 54th. On one hand, India's business readiness (27th) is impressive, thanks to high quality management schools (12th), significant
corporate spending on R&D (29th) and a broad base of suppliers.
"This results in high ICT usage by businesses (30th), with a strong capacity not only to adopt new technologies (26th) but also to innovate (35th)," the statement noted.
It pointed out that like China, India ranks low (114th) in individual usage because of spotty ICT penetration.
"Notably, and despite a two-fold increase, there are fewer than three PCs and only seven Internet users for every 100 inhabitants, corresponding to 94th and 99th,
respectively," the statement added.
The report is produced by the WEF in association with INSEAD, the leading international business school, and is sponsored by Cisco System.
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