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May 18, 2001
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Money > Business Headlines > Report May 18, 2001 |
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India ranks 45th in e-readinessNetScribes/TM Arun Kumar India has ranked a dismal 45th and has been bracketed in the e-business 'followers' category by a recent study on e-readiness among the 60 largest economies in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit and Pyramid Research. On a scale of 10, India has been marked 3.97, while predictably, the US leads the list with a score of 8.73, followed by Australia (8.29), UK (8.10), Canada (8.09), and Norway (8.07). The ranking reflects the extent to which a country's business environment is conducive to Internet-based commercial opportunities and takes into account a wide range of factors, from the sophistication of the telecom infrastructure, to the security of credit-card transactions and the level of literacy. Ranked ahead of India are countries like the Czech Republic at 27 with a score of 5.71, Hungary at 28 with 5.49, Mexico at 34 with 4.78, South Africa at 35 with 4.74, Columbia at 38 with 4.24, and Sri Lanka at 43 at 3.82. However, all of these nations too are clubbed in the e-business 'followers' category. However, China has ranked behind India at the 49th place, with a score of 3.36. Rounding off the list are Vietnam at 58, Azerbaijan at 59, and Pakistan at number 60. These countries have been classified under the 'laggards' category. According to the report, smart government policy in promoting e-business is extremely important, as business agility and smart policy trump size and wealth. "Some of the world's biggest countries score very low on our list. India, for instance, ranks 45th, despite a world-class cadre of software programmers and a booming outsourcing industry for everything from call centres to medical transcription. China fares even worse, at 49th, even though it boasts one of the world's fastest-growing Internet populations. The two countries score poorly despite such pockets of promise because poverty, illiteracy and infrastructure inadequacies prevent e-business from gaining critical mass," states the report. The report marks North America and northern Europe as the most e-savvy regions and points out that emerging markets too offer pockets of promise in e-business. |
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