One major factor I think is what we study. We do not have SICP course in comp sci, instead we study C, C++, java. I had not even heard of lisp, till I came across SICP course from Berkeley web casts. Of course I do not think even in US, they teach ROR, but as PG says, startups and latest and greatest of technology comes around places where there are good universities. I am in no way suggesting that places like IITs are not good, but most of Indian IT industry is not from IITs, that reflects in percentage
To some extent I do agree with you, but in my opinion the problem is a little different. The main problem is that, the gap between software companies and college is very wide. During our course we don't even know what is happening in software industry. This gap can easily be bridged by making some sort forum where student can have a direct contact with live software firms.
I mean, a killer idea is a killer idea, no matter what language you use. It's great and their are inherent advantages to using Lisp, RoR, Django to develop your idea, but at the end of the day, it's a means to an end. Facebook is in PHP. Outside of the internet, most software is still written in Java or C++. There are lot of these startups in the US as well.
