India far ahead in IT, Chinese firms catching up: Chinese expert

India’s IT sector, one of the mainstays of its economy, is much ahead of its Chinese counterpart in the global markets but the firms from China are catching up and doing well in e-commerce, autonomous driving, AI and cloud services, according to a top Chinese IT executive. Mike Liu, the author of the book titled ‘The Rise of Indian IT’, said unlike the Indian firms, who still have a sway in the global markets, especially in IT outsourcing, China’s software revenue is mostly from home. Over 95 per cent of China’s IT earnings come from the domestic market, he said.

“The Chinese companies are not a threat to the Indian firms in the global markets,” Mike, one of the rare Chinese IT executives who worked with the top Indian company Infosys for years, told a news agency in Beijing ahead of his book launch. Mike was the first Chinese-born country head of Infosys and worked both in Indian and Chinese firms, besides multinational companies like HP. IT sectors in both countries contribute about eight per cent to their GDPs, though China’s IT revenues are far higher considering the size of the Chinese economy, Mike said.  The Chinese companies need to learn many things such as mindset, management systems and governance, he said, adding that an abundant supply of human resources in IT was key for India’s success.

He said the Indian IT phenomenon is not made possible through either deregulated efforts or government subsidies and policies but due to the strong conviction by the Indian tech leaders and software engineers to make a difference. However, on the tech front of IT and innovation, China has taken the lead, he said. Chinese firms like Huawei, Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent made a big leap in technology development, while the Indian IT sector is broadly confined to software outsourcing, spending little on innovation and R&D, he said.On India’s constant complaint that China is not providing market access to Indian IT firms, he argued that the issue of market access should not be an excuse for Indian IT firms’ inability to penetrate Chinese markets.