Hope for the laggard

India is a laggard when it comes to using information and communication to improve the lot of its own people and improve its own competitiveness

Global rankings are not always the most reliable indicators to use; economies that are routinely reckoned to be the most competitive are always beaten in the growth stakes by countries much lower down the totem pole. Still, the annual global information technology report, produced by the leading European business school Insead and the World Economic Forum, brings out forcefully the irony that marks India’s relationship with information technology, and is credible because it mirrors the known reality. India is the foremost outsourcing destination in the world, based on the software and back-office skills of its work force and the prowess of its IT and BPO firms, yet it is a laggard when it comes to using information and communication technology (ICT) to improve the lot of its own people and improve the country’s overall competitiveness. Even worse, it seems to be falling behind other countries from one year to the next. India’s ranking on the basis of a network readiness index, an aggregate measure of a country’s ability to use ICT for its betterment, has fallen over the last three years from 44 to 54, whereas in the last one year China has improved its rank by 11 places to overtake India and reach the 46th position. This underlines the reality that India remains a country of huge numbers of poor and illiterate people, the majority of whom do not have access to electricity, not to speak of a computer. But within this there is a core of highly competent professionals.

The usefulness of the report lies in not just highlighting this broad picture but through its large number of tables offering a wealth of information as to where India’s strengths and weaknesses lie; information which can prove invaluable in devising a strategy to tackle the endemic backwardness. India scores the poorest in terms of individual access to ICT. This is best highlighted by comparing India’s rank in relation to that of China and Brazil (all three are Bric economies). India is third among the three, in terms of 2007 data, in mobile telephones, personal computers, internet subscriptions and the use and availability of internet bandwidth. Of these, the gap is being rapidly closed only in the case of mobile telephones, though even on that score the others are not standing still.

Interestingly, the picture changes when one looks at the data relating to business use of ICT. India is a global leader (ranked 12th) in the quality of its business schools. It is also first among the three when it comes to business’s willingness to invest in staff training and firm-level ability to absorb technology. It is second in business use of the internet, local availability of specialised research and training services, university-industry research collaboration and company spending on R&D. However, the real bright spot is in the government’s attitude to ICT. Among the three, it scores the highest in the priority that the government gives to IT and second (after China but ahead of Brazil) in having an IT vision for the future. But again, it comes third in its readiness to take forward e-governance. What is perhaps most hopeful is the attitude of its leading political parties in having a vision and a plan to use IT for betterment. Both the Congress and the BJP have made elaborate, almost extravagant, promises in their election manifestos of taking the internet and broadband to every village and e-governance to every panchayat. Perhaps there is room for hope that the gap will begin to get closed before long.