Americans bad at Maths is good news for Indians

The Economic Times:"In a recent OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) study, 15-year-olds in the US are at the bottom of the heap of industrialized countries in math skills, ahead of only Portugal, Mexico.

A recent survey by Gartner, the world's biggest high-tech forecasting firm, said that one out of 10 jobs in the US computer services and software industry could shift to lower-cost emerging markets like India or Russia by the end of 2004. The ones more likely to be affected by it are knowledge workers in the banking, healthcare and insurance sector.

Although the US universities have a high quality, compared to the rest of the world, the question that arises is not many American students are able to reach the university level, accompanied by falling grades.

That apart, another issue that looms large is whether the US is itself producing enough scientists. In a OECD study conducted 3 years back, US youngsters scored at the average in 2000 but eight points below it last year."