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Our Bureau

New Delhi , Nov. 10

WHILE India is at the bottom one-third of the global knowledge economy comparison, it leads among South Asian countries.

In the ICT (information communications technology) sector, India has made significant advances in telephone, computer and Internet penetration.

However, the country has fallen behind since many other countries including China, Brazil, Jordan and Poland have advanced faster.

Although India has tremendous strengths to leverage knowledge for its development, the country has to harness its potential by focusing on its strengths, said World Bank Manager (knowledge economy), Mr Carl Dahlman, while detailing a World Bank study on the knowledge economy.

India's strengths include a large population and a domestic market, critical mass of scientists and engineers doing research and development (R&D), well-qualified persons, strong capability in software development and a dynamic private sector, among others.

The country's weaknesses include a weak fiscal position, high illiteracy, brain drain and a weak innovation system, according to the study.

Countries such as Taiwan, Korea and China have controlled brain drain quite effectively by attracting the best of brains back by offering special incentives.

"Both China and Taiwan have opened up special technology parks with excellent facilities in order to attract their intellectual capital," said Mr Dahlman.

Various threats to India's development include the world becoming increasingly competitive, the country's risk of increasing the knowledge divide between states and within states, according to the study.

According to the report's findings, India fares better than China in the economic and incentive regime due to its democratic tradition, stronger infrastructure supporting private enterprise and capital markets operating with greater efficiency.

However, multiplicity of regulations governing product markets, distortions in the market for land and widespread government ownership of businesses have been inhibiting GDP growth.

Removing these barriers could allow India to grow as fast as China at 10 per cent a year and help create some 75 million new jobs outside agriculture, says the study.

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