'The number of investigators in India has also grown the fastest among Asian, Latin American and Eastern European countries with a 42 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2002-2008,' the study added.

Additionally, the fact that India has 840,000 hospital beds in urban areas, over 600,000 English-speaking physicians and nearly 100,000 specialists, with many of them having been trained in the best global institutes, also adds to India's competitiveness.

The study said this was also a prime reason that nine of the top 15 global pharmaceutical and biotech companies have set up captive clinical research centres in the country.

India constitutes 16 percent of the global population with 20 percent of the global disease burden.