The annual Global Information Technology Report plots the status of countries in terms of their ability to use information and communication technology (ICT) to drive their overall competitiveness and improve the well-being of their citizens. In the process, it captures the duality of India, which has the wherewithal to deliver global IT services but is poor when it comes to delivering the same to its own citizens. However, this collaborative offering of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and INSEAD, a leading European business school, overlaps with the global competitiveness report prepared by the parent WEF. Hence the oddities like a report on countries’ ICT status, which takes note of criteria such as judicial independence and press freedom. True, these are important in all aspects of life. But if you include them in a weighted average of various criteria to get final country scores on a network readiness index then it will partially shadow countries’ global competitiveness index scores, partly losing focus of the basic objective of measuring countries’ ICT prowess. Also, there are also some counter-intuitive scores like press freedom in the US being placed lower than not just India’s but also Bangladesh’s and the effectiveness of law-making bodies being lower in the US than in China and India.
That apart, the report captures certain home truths. As groups, the Nordic countries and the Asian Tigers score equally well and figure at the top of the league table. The European Union, minus the Nordics, falls behind. The Asian Tigers score in network readiness (countries’ ability to benefit from new technologies and compete better) and usage and the Nordics in environment (market, political, regulatory and infrastructure). The emerging BRICS are still emerging, with around a third of the 138 countries measured being ahead of them. China leads the group (rank 36), followed by India (48), Brazil (56), South Africa (61) and Russia (77). Interestingly, Vietnam (55) is catching up, closely followed by Thailand (59). Much need not be made of India going down five notches in the latest report (2010-11) against the previous year, since that was a nine-notch improvement over the year before (2008-09). Perhaps the most striking progress made over a five-year period (2005-09) has been by Afghanistan and Tanzania, with their mobile penetration going up from under 20 per cent of population to over 80 per cent. And China is a clear leader in global ITC goods export, accounting for 22.6 per cent, with the US way behind at 9.2 per cent.
India’s strengths and weaknesses, as measured, are revealing. Venture capital funding is readily available; the government has ICT high on its priority list and has the right vision; there are any number of competent engineers and scientists available; the management schools are of top quality; mobile tariffs are among the lowest in the world and competition in the field is intense. But India falls behind in mobile phone subscription, personal computer ownership, internet usage, broadband subscription and even mobile network coverage. Most fundamentally, electricity availability and literacy scores are low by global standards. If a lot of people can’t read and don’t have access to power, how can they benefit from ICT?