Arindam Bhattacharya writes in Businessweek:
Most people in the U.S. and elsewhere in the West think of China and India largely as sources for inexpensive products and services. Few know that China, India, and other developing countries are taking center stage in the global war for innovation and talent.
Consider some important benchmarks: Scientists and engineers in China, India, and Russia are now producing an estimated 150,000 scientific and technical papers annually, more than many Western European nations. According to a Thomson Reuters review of 8,700 research journals worldwide, U.S. scientists led all others with slightly more than 25% of the total. Japan and Germany were next, with about 6.5% each, followed by France, Britain, and China, at 6% each. Brazil, Russia, India, and China, the so-called BRIC countries, produced more than 10% of the total—a number that is growing. If current trends continue, the developing countries could reach U.S. levels in fewer than 10 years.
The rapidly developing economies also now claim an estimated two-thirds of all engineers, a vital talent pool, while many Western countries face talent scarcities. Asian scientists and students are returning home from the West in record numbers—with those numbers increasing at approximately 13% per year. China and India are investing heavily in research and development, with China alone spending $136 billion on R&D in 2007, second only to the U.S. and ahead of Japan.
China and India also now boast some of the world's top science and research universities, including the seven-campus Indian Institutes of Technology as well as Beijing's Tsinghua University, which has more than 2,400 alumni in Silicon Valley alone. These trends have helped many Chinese and Indian companies aggregate a critical mass of talent, which is having a profound impact on their ability to innovate and compete in the global economy.
To read more:
http://www.businessweek.com/print/globalbiz/content/nov2008/gb20081117_964178.htm
My view on this issue back in 2005 can be found here:
As I noted here last week, a new study from Duke University suggests the so—called engineering gap between America and its Asian rivals China and India is a myth. Now BusinessWeek has uncovered some possible reasons behind this "propaganda" and the detrimental effect it is having America's current high—tech workers.
After discussing the sensitive issue with the author of the Duke study Dr. Vivek Wadhwa, Mr. Pete Engardio writes:
The bottom line is that America's engineering crisis is a myth, Wadhwa argues. Both sides in the globalization debate are "spreading propaganda," he contends. India and China are using inflated engineering numbers because they want to draw more foreign investment, while fearmongers in the U.S. use dubious data either to support their case for protectionism, to lobby for greater government spending on higher education and research, or to justify their offshore investments.
Some liberals have made scary predictions that all of our best jobs are migrating to low cost Asian countries. Promoted by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in his best—selling book The World is Flat, this fearmongering is demoralizing some American engineers.
To read more:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2005/12/more_on_the_engineering_crisis.html
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