India ranked 40th in Global ICT index

New Delhi, Mar 28: Despite all the hullabaloo about India's prowess in IT and sky-rocketing telecom subscriptions, the country still figured at the bottom rung (rank 40) in the World Economic Forum's Global Information Technology Report 2005-2006. US topped the list, followed by Singapore, Denmark and Iceland at second third and fourth positions, respectively, in the report released on Tuesday.

India's ranking at 40th position amongst 115 economies remained largely unchanged. In fact, India slid one rank from last year's 39th position. China's rank dropped 9 positions from 41 last year to 50 th position this year.

US regains the top position in the rankings, reflecting an impressive performance in the areas of ICT physical infrastructure and high levels of business and government usage of the latest technologies.

US topped the rankings for the third time in five years. Last year, US was ranked fifth on the list. The US also stands out for ready availability of venture capital.

Singapore had topped the list last year. Singapore benefits from an excellent regulatory environment and exemplary macroeconomic management.

Singapore apart, Asia and the Pacific also did extremely well this year with Taiwan in 7th place, gaining 8 positions from last year and in the top ten for the first time, followed closely by Hong Kong (11), Korea (14), Australia (15) and Japan (16).

Nordic countries maintained their positions at the top of the rankings, with Denmark, Iceland, Finland and Sweden in third, fourth, fifth and eighth places respectively.

Nordic countries have registered consistently high ICT penetration and have occupied places in the top ten positions over the last five years. Estonia leads the eastern European countries with a rank of 23 out of 115 (gaining two positions from last year), thanks to its excellent political and regulatory framework for ICT. The highest ranking Latin American countries are Chile (29), Brazil (52) and Mexico (55).