India's Richest Man Plans for India's Future

[Guest guest]

Premji's five mantras to transform India

 

Indo-Asian News Service

 

New Delhi, August 30, 2005

 

IT major Wipro group's chairman Azim Premji on Tuesday spelt out a

five-point mantra that he said would completely transform India

socially and economically.

 

Drawing parallels with India's knowledge industry, Premji however

said his five-point strategy comprised initiatives on land reforms,

energy, health, primary education and interlinking of rivers that

were no short-term drivers.

 

These areas require a lot of sweat and labour and are worth the

trouble in the long run, he said while delivering the eighth JRD Tata

Memorial Lecture organised here by the Associated Chambers of

Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham).

 

"We must overhaul our land laws, taxes and information system. Some

90 per cent of land in India is subject to legal disputes over

ownership," said Premji, who transformed Wipro from a family business

into one of India's largest IT firms.

 

"Stamp duty ranges from eight to 15 per cent of the property value,

encouraging avoidance. On the other hand, property tax rates are low

and collection is inefficient," he said, adding that all these also

hamper the ability to maintain urban infrastructure.

 

Premji referred to the power sector as the biggest source of resource

drain on the economy and said the government needed to curb thefts

and improve efficiency of generation, distribution and transmission.

 

"These changes will have a major impact on the fiscal deficit of

states, apart from bringing down the costs of doing business," he

said in the lecture series that in the past has been delivered by

President APJ Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Infosys

co-founder NR Narayana Murthy, among others.

 

The chairman of the $1.76 billion Wipro also stressed the need to

execute innovative projects like interlinking of rivers.

 

"Less than 40 per cent of cultivable land is under assured

irrigation. Ground water table is declining at the rate of five

percent every year," he said, adding that water shortage will create

barriers to growth in the medium term.

 

Referring to his own area of expertise in information technology,

Premji said various kinds of arbitrage opportunities exist across

various national economies and regions.

 

"Remember the growth experience of the Indian software industry? The

salary differential among software professionals between the US and

India was a great arbitrage opportunity on which the initial success

of the industry was built."

 

He said a similar opportunity had risen today in the business process

outsourcing industry and in pharmaceutical and biotech research.

 

Premji, accordingly, prescribed a medium-term solution, saying

technological possibilities and changes in the geo-political scenario

will be the major economic drivers of tomorrow.

 

"But the sweep of these drivers is much broader. Unlike short-term

drivers, these do not provide quick opportunities for gains and

require a lot of sweat and labour. In the long run, however, they are

worth the trouble," he said.

 

"All leapfrog economic gains comes from these drivers. The Indian IT

industry is a case in point."

 

Premji said primary education and healthcare were the other two

neglected areas that need to be immediately addressed and said out of

192 million children in the age group of 6-14, 39 million did not

have access to primary education.

 

"Similarly, our infant mortality rate is 70 per 1,000 compared to

less than 10 per 1,000 in the developed world," he said.

 

Later, fielding questions, Premji said India has a five-year head

start over China in the IT industry, but said he, for one, would take

the communist country seriously.

 

"It is no longer the issue of whether one should focus on China, or

India versus China, but of India and China," Premji said, while

listing engineering, research and development and biotechnology as

India's strengths.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1476874,0008.htm?

headline=Premji's~5~mantras~to~transform~India