India slips in IT ranking

NEW DELHI: India may be a global IT leader, but the fact is, we don't have the right environment to encourage IT production in the country. This has emerged from a Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) study. The Global IT Competitiveness Index ranks India 48th in the world, down two places since last year. The study done in 66 countries, ranks US as the most competitive country followed by Taiwan and UK.Interestingly, India is two places ahead of China but both countries have lost ground since last year. While India ranked 46 in 2007, China was 49.
EIU along with Business Software Alliance (BSA) examined six key attributes of a country before drawing up these conclusions. These were: the business environment, IT infrastructure, human capital, legal environment, R&D and support for the IT industry.
India ranks 50th in overall business environment. "It's tougher to do business here compared to Sri Lanka or Philippines,'' says Jeffrey J Hardee, VP Asia, BSA. The countries that do well in all the six indices usually have some of the most high-performing IT industries. What goes against India is that inspite of opening up its economy, it's still not very investor friendly.