BANGALORE - China is fast
catching up with India's software industry through huge
investments in improving the English-speaking ability of
its people and in higher education, Infosys chairman and
chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy said on Tuesday.
"I think the gap is about three years. China is
extremely aggressive in bridging the gap in English and
also the government is investing heavily in building
capacities in higher education, that is engineering
students," Murthy told reporters at the launch of the
company's Campus Connect programme.
"If we as a
country, the industry, the government and the people put
our heads together, perhaps we could increase the gap,
maybe 5 years, 10 years or beyond," he said.
Murthy, whose firm has a China subsidiary, said
contrary to popular belief, China has project management
skills within its hardware industry but has to improve
its English knowledge.
"There is considerable
domain expertise. I think it is a question of catching
up with English and tweaking a bit of project
management," he said.
"We are at a critical
juncture, there is great probability, that countries
like China, Brazil and Mexico which have a large
population, they could be big competitors for India,"
Murthy said, adding that "quality of manpower need to be
improved by India if we have to be ahead of
competition".
(Asia Pulse/PTI)
Jul 29, 2004
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