The push to lure Indian firms overseas is aimed at bridging a shortage of skilled software professionals in many other countries, the chief of India's top technology lobby said.

"Many of the European nations face shortage of skills in the IT area and they see this as an organised way to get in expertise as well as investment," said Kiran Karnik, head of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom).

"It is a better way to create local employment. Getting companies from India will help," he told AFP.

During the tech fair, known as BangaloreIT.com, Hong Kong wooed Indian firms by pitching its proximity to Chinese markets and dangling a zero-tariff pact with Beijing which comes into force next year.

Meanwhile, Germany and Britain showcased their economic strengths and described themselves as a "gateway to Europe".

Both countries have sent large delegations to participate in the fair hosted in India's technology capital of Bangalore, home to more than 1,000 foreign IT companies including Cisco, Dell, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Oracle.

"Certainly, high qualification and quality young people, engineers and scientists are sought after not only in Germany but all over the globe in high technology development," said German Consul General Heinz Kopp.

India has the largest pool of English-speaking trained labour outside the United States. It churns out more than two million graduates every year and about 200,000 of them have engineering degrees.

India has also emerged as the "back office" to the world as global firms have shifted work to cities such as Bangalore, Hyderabad and New Delhi to take advantage of lower wages to slash costs.