However, it were the southern states, which were ahead in the availability of talent pool, Madan Padaki, co-founder of Merittrac services, Bangalore, which conducted the survey, said.
The survey, which included an IT abilities test, was conducted among 25,000 students in over 800 colleges spread across the country, he said.
The country produced 3.5 lakh engineers, making it the second largest pool in the world, he said.
The survey also revealed that there was 20 per cent increase in the number of engineering colleges with more institutes coming up in rural areas.
The IT abilities test, designed in conjuction with several leading IT companies, evaluated logical reasoning, problem solving ability and skills of the students.
