Beijing: While lauding China's recent leap forward in the economic and social sectors, Information Technology guru, N R Narayana Murthy today (November 7) said the communist giant would overtake India in the software sector in next five years only if "we did nothing".

"I believe that if India did nothing to consolidate its position and go into the next orbit, probably in about five years China would overtake us," Murthy, Chairman of the board of Infosys Technologies Limited told reporters in Beijing on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) China Business Summit 2003.

"But then, this is one area where I find that there is a sense of confidence in India, there is a sense of openness to learn from China and to compete with China," Murthy, who also chaired an interactive session on 'Technology and Communications: Building the knowledge economy in China', said.

Since there is a sense of confidence and sense of openness among India's software industry, Murthy said he believed that Indian companies would continue to create their own competitive advantages over China, which is attempting to overtake India in the software sector.

Murthy said Infosys, plans to open its software development centre in China's largest city and commercial capital, Shanghai in January 2004 to serve as a hub for the company's software services in China as well as in the Asia Pacific region.

The fully owned China subsidiary of Infosys would be offering end-to-end software services to domestic companies in China, and multinational companies operating in the communist nation.

To start with, the Shanghai Software Development Centre would have 200 professionals, which could go up to 2,500, he said.

Meanwhile, Murthy was confident that India and China had immense potential for engaging in mutually beneficial co-operation in the information technology sector.

Describing himself as "a great admirer of China," Murthy said though China faced many problems in its way to the top, the country was determined to address the issues sincerely so as to become a software major.

At this point of time the mastery over English language is one of the advantages India enjoys over China, he said.

Secondly, the awareness of the business paradigm – how businesses are conducted. Here again India is ahead of China today due to the 'mixed economy' that the country practiced since 1947, he said.

Thirdly, the management of large projects- how you subdivide a large task into multiple sub-tasks- put them in the critical path, assign them resources, review it constantly and escalate when it is needed. "This is another area where I think India is ahead of China," he said.

PTI