According to infotech market research agency, IDC, top Indian offshore business locations could be overtaken by Chinese cities as favoured outsourcing destinations by 2011.

The study cautioned that Shanghai, Beijing and Dalian could eclipse Indian offshore centres, Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai.

The IDC index ranked Bangalore, Manila, New Delhi, Mumbai, Dalian, Shanghai, Beijing, Sydney, Brisbane and Auckland among this year''s top outsourcing destinations.

This ranking could change to Shanghai, Bangalore, Dalian, New Delhi, Beijing, Mumbai, Manila, Hyderabad, Kuala Lumpur and Brisbane.

Ccording to Conrad Chang, IDC Asia-Pacific research manager, Chinese cities were catching up fast due to their ability to learn from India about what was required for successful outsourcing.

China has made massive investment in infrastructure, development of relevant skills in languages including English, Japanese and Korean and investing in education to produce skilled engineers, computer scientists and managers.

IDC''s view is that the combination of all these factors might just give China the edge.