India ahead of China in exploiting technology

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New Delhi, April 10: : India's capability to tap the potential of information and communication technology resources seems to be declining, with the country's rank falling globally, but is still ahead of neighbouring China, says a new report.

The World Economic Forum, which assessed 127 countries based on their ability to exploit available information and communication technology has ranked India at the 50th place, down from 44th rank last year.

However, China has jumped to the 57th position this year as compared to 59th rank in 2007, but lags behind India. In WEF's 'Global Information Technology Report 2007-08', apart from India and China, another Asian country Sri Lanka also bettered its ranking.

Sri Lanka is placed at 79th position, a jump of seven places from its ranking last year.

Meanwhile, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland have cornered the top three places, respectively and are followed by United States (4th) and Singapore (5th).

"The extraordinary power of ICT to enable growth, reduce poverty, and improve citizens lives has become increasingly clear to policymakers and civil society alike, and ICT promotion has gradually found a more privileged place in national competitiveness strategies and policy agendas," the report noted.

These rankings are based on Network Readiness Index (NRI), which is a measure of a country's capacity to make use of information and communications technology resources. It also shows how nations are performing in terms of their participation in the "Networked World".

Referring to India, the report said, "... WiMAX is publicised as 30 times faster than 3G mobile technology and 100 times faster than wireless data rates, and has been widely anticipated to cure the problems of rural connectivity.

It has been promoted as the answer to India's last-mile connectivity issues, which have hampered Internet take-up in rural India."