Lack of IT infra a drag on India, China's competitive edge:EIU

India and China by virtue of their large pool of skilled IT employees enjoy a significant advantage among emerging markets but lack of IT infrastructure remains a dampener, blunting their competitive edge, a report by Economic Intelligence research said.     

Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) is the research arm of London-based publication, Economist.     

The report, 'Resilience amid Turmoil: Benchmarking IT Industry Competitiveness 2009', ranks India at the 44th position in the IT Industry Competitive Index 2009, four positions higher than its 2008 ranking. Overall, 66 countries feature in the index.     

"In emerging markets, large pools of IT skilled employees remain a significant advantage for China, India Russia and other countries, but uneven progress in other areas such as IT infrastructure, remains a drag on their IT competitiveness," the report said.     

However, despite accusations against the Obama regime of being 'protectionist', the US retains the top ranking, followed by Finland, Sweden, Canada, the Netherlands and the UK.