IT czar Azim Premji on Friday praised the way China is being administered, and predicted that the future would witness low-cost innovations from the Communist country flowing into the global market in a big way.
"Don't underestimate China in terms of any opportunity that is coming up in the world," the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange-listed Wipro said while answering questions at an executive committee meeting of Ficci.
"And China is probably the best administered country in the world today," added Premji, who earlier delivered an address on 'Sustainability and Innovation'.
Stating that China is doing some "incredible work" in the field of electric cars, Premji said that the country was "very innovative" with "fundamental R&D" in the solar energy space, and not just a "copycat".
He said that while China does have the world's largest copycat industry worth almost $1 trillion, it has taken up work in areas such as software, automobile engineering and renewable energy as a national programme.
The world can expect China to increasingly cater to countries like India, Africa and even the United States, where customers are looking for high-value products with cheap price tags, Premji said.
India to see renewable energy revolution
India, he said, is heading towards a "renewable energy revolution" of the kind witnessed in the mobile phone space.
Premji argued that India today has a "very low, inadequate, semi-inefficient" installed base on the power generation front, similar to the landline telecom scenario prior to the cellphone revolution.
He said the power capacity requirement in India is so huge that it would kick-start the renewable energy industry, which is enjoying "generous" government incentives.
Drawing a parallel, Premji said the mobile phone revolution in India was triggered by the lack of a landline telecom base and the waiting period of two years to get a connection.
Delivering an address on "Sustainability and Innovation", Premji expressed dismay over climate change and strongly advocated checking "abuse of ecological balance".
"The most frightening thing is water management is not high on the priority of the government," he said and lamented the lack of recycling of water.
Premji expressed anguish over the degradation of water and said tap water is not potable. Wells in villages are polluted, with people falling sick. He said it is going to be a "national crisis" if the government does not take systematic measures on a war-footing to address the issue of water management.
While the government has "woken up" to increasing power generation following "political pressures" (from voters), "they have still not woken up adequately to the issue of water management", he said.
