New Delhi: India's infrastructure on education may have a long way to go to reach global standards, but when it comes to the sheer number of

students graduating in maths and science, the country outperforms the US, Europe and Japan, says a new study.

India, in fact, ranks 17th based on this parameter, against 48 for the US, 33 for Japan and 38 for China, says the study by Ernst and Young, conducted jointly with the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham).

Germany, according to the study, ranks first, followed by Singapore and France.

"The number of science and engineering graduates is an important consideration. There are 690,000 students of science and maths graduating every year -- much higher than China, Japan, the US and Europe," said D S Rawat, secretary general of Assocham.

"In China, the number of such graduates each year is 530,000, against 350,000 in Japan, 420,000 in the US and 470,000 in the EU," added Rawat, while releasing the study Thursday.

Some key facts about Indian education system highlighted by the study are:

-More than 2.3 million graduates every year

-Nearly 750,000 post-graduates per annum

-Second largest pool of scientists and engineers in the world

-Second largest number of trained doctors

-As many as 389 universities, 14,169 colleges and 1,500 research institutions

According to the study, changes in the education system were also necessary to meet the exacting demands of a knowledge economy. The exam system also needs to be overhauled to base it more on solving problem than in enhancing memorising capabilities of students.

"If higher education in India is liberalised with massive expansion of professional education and more institutions under public-private initiatives, the system can be completely transformed to acquire well established global standards," said Rawat.

Research institutions should be encouraged to incubate enterprises through a Rs.5,000-crore (over $1-billion) fund. An expenditure of 3 percent of gross domestic product for research is needed to encourage innovation and to nurture original ideas and thinking. IANS