Its true that lower end of the academic spectrum is substandard. Nevertheless, India has shown progress. The lower 50% may need special training, true. But dont you see that the other 50% (250,000 ?) is well employable ? This 50% is numerically well above than the total output of any other country other than China. I have also read reports that the number of “employable” is even more lower in China. So, that would definitely put India in the top spot.

As for “political madness” (?) in India, you must note that the top tech companies, including Google, already have offices in multiple locations in India. Its just a question of renting some more office space & hiring more people. I dont see how the bureaucracy would impede such basic operations. And the company in question – Google – has total workforce of about 20,000. So, it boils down to just hiring may be 500 more people in India. I’m sure that there are plenty of available talent in the top 50% who could easily fill the gap.

As for India, I dont see what ground-breaking advantage Google or India is going to gain from Google’s China exit. Google is already the market leader in India. There are no desi search engines which can challenge Google (like Baidu). Apart from the gratification derived from bruising the Chinese ego, I dont see Google making any real profit. One must also see how cleverly Google is masking their failure to secure the market share & making irrelevant noise about human rights.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_Internet_users

India has one serious impediment which must be addressed by our Intelligentsia. English is both India’s boon and bane. China’s internet usage is 26% of pop. India’s is 7%. Since the Chinese dont have English advantage, an entire Chinese-based Internet eco system evolved & was well adapted by a quarter of the population. Since the educated demographic of India is well educated in English, the eco system for Indian languages based Internet did not evolve. Since the number of English speakers in India is 150M, theoretically speaking, the number of Internet users cannot exceed 150M => 12.5%. If we dont seriously take any measures to address this, India will be shaded along with African countries for a long long time.

On the positive side, Indian internet usage is still waiting for the right strategy to knock the flood gates. Like in mobile phone industry, the right strategy was arrived at and the usage grew exponentially. India Inc & the Intelligentsia must look at this direction and evolve appropriate strategies/technologies.

What? This is diametrically the opposite of what Indian academics, intellectuals, informed mediapersons, students, activists and organizations that study such things have been saying. India has one of the worst infrastructures for academic excellence. It has great potential but that’s always been the problem: it’s never converted to reality. It is well known that a huge percentage (>50%) of Indian graduates are considered un-employable and need to undergo special training after graduation just so they can be employed.

I think you’re right in saying it might benefit India if Google exits China, but there’s a good chance the political madness that dogs India will make sure this doesn’t happen.

And they should also do something about the personal hygiene of its millions workers because foreigners will have hard time collaborating with Indians.

did u know china has the MOST WEBSITES in the world? why do most chinese need to even visit all these outside sites when they have many more sites available to them?