When I point out a survey that was done poorly I will be biased if I don't point out surveys that are done well. Even when the results are disappointing. This is a month old news. So if you have read the survey about student learning in Indian metros then fine. If not you can find it here. The surprising thing is both the surveys are published by India Today group. Though the previous one was conducted by them (along with Mercer and TNS) this one was conducted by Educational Initiatives with the help of Wipro. (I guess India Today got the exclusive) It is worth a read.
A quick summary for those of you who find the survey too long:

• Children in some top schools of Indian metros perform less than interantational average in these tests.
• Chennai and Bangalore kids did worse than Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta kids.
• Boys did better than Girls.
• They were able to answer standard questions when presented in standard form. But most of them weren't able to tackle questions that are slightly different.
• Children in ICSE schools did better than children in CBSE. Children in CBSE schools did better than children in state board schools.

There are no surprises in the last two points. But the first three are surprises atleast to me. So much for our knowledge superpower goal.