Next Bill Gates could be from India or China: survey

A sizeable number of Americans believe that the next Bill Gates would come from India or China – as the two Asian giants are fast marching ahead on the global platform, a new US survey has revealed.

"When asked where the 'next Bill Gates will come from', 40 per cent of Americans predicted either India or China," said a national survey released by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) on the sidelines of the world's largest consumer technology tradeshow at Las Vegas.

The vast majority of them, about 96 per cent, believe that innovation was critical to the future success of the US as a world economic leader but they were concerned that the rising federal deficit would jeopardise prosperity of future generations, the survey said.

The economic survey, conducted by Zogby International, found that 68 per cent of Americans think innovation was key to the future success of their place of employment, with 50 per cent maintaining that innovation was important for their job remaining in the US.

After the World Economic Forum reported that the US has lost its global competitiveness ranking while India, China and Brazil have gained, 74 per cent of Americans said it was unlikely the US would regain its status next year.

But 44 per cent pointed to innovation was the most important factor in seeking US competitiveness, it said.

According to the survey, nearly 60 per cent Americans agreed that the rising national deficit would have a "major impact" on the prosperity of future generations.

But when it comes to reducing the deficit, they were largely split on three issues: discontinuing corporate bailouts (23 per cent), reducing military spending (20 per cent), and relying on the free market to correct the imbalance (31 per cent).

Nearly 60 per cent of the respondents said that they were concerned that current path being taken by Congress would be detrimental to medical innovation.

Tensions seemed to run high: nearly half of them said they were "very concerned", the survey said.

The Zogby survey was conducted between November 20 and 23, with a sample size of 3,779 US adults over the age of 18.