India plans to produce 120K academically trained IT professionals/year by 2007, up from 90K at present. Private-sector educational groups hope to raise that to 500K/year by 2006. Some of these will migrate to the US, which has raised its skilled professional quote from 115K to 195K over the next three years. [Reuters. SJM, 29Nov00. NewsScan.]

The US Government will be raising salaries as much as 33% for such workers in high-tech areas such as San Francisco, partly to compete for top CS graduates. [AP. SJM, 04Nov00. NewsScan.]

If you're interested in the future, see the economic and demographic projections in "California's Fiscal Outlook 2000-01 Through 2005-06 Part 2," , from the California Legislative Analyst's Office. "Our forecast calls for continued healthy -- though somewhat moderating -- national- and state-level economic growth." [Bob Smith , 16Nov00.]

----- "Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half." -- Gore Vidal. [NewsScan, 14Nov00.] -----