Google has announced the final results of Google India Code Jam 2006, a coding contest that attracted more than 14,000 developers from Asian countries.

Ardian Kristanto from Nanyang Technological University won the first prize while Abishek K of IIT Madras was declared the runner up. Adrian had also won the 2005 Code Jam contest while he was in third year of college.

The coding competition was so fierce that Adrian beat Abishek by just 0.03 points. Shreevatsa Rajagopalan was distant third trailing by more than 350 points.

For Google, the Code Jam will serve as a short cut through its hiring regime. Candidates normally go through a seven-stage process that can last months - and, at the end of it, they're more likely to be rejected than hired. Much of that screening can be set aside for Code Jam winners.

The contest was open to programmers from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Thailand and Bangladesh. Google now has a new pool of Asian talent to choose from.