India can compete with China by harnessing data: Capgemini Chairman Paul Hermelin

NEW DELHI: India can compete with China in terms of building a data economy by harnessing its large population to innovate and build the next Google and Amazon locally, Capgemini chairman Paul Hermelin said on Friday.

“China is right in thinking it is successful because data is the key ingredient. Data in China will be like oil in Saudi Arabia,” Hermelin said at the Global Business Summit. “India can compete with China in terms of data as it (India) is a large country with a large population.”

Hermelin gave credit to first generation IT entrepreneurs such as Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy and Wipro’s Azim Premji, for building a competitive and productive industry by selling services to global companies in the West. Capgemini is partly built on that model, he said, with the French business consulting firm having a large offshore base of more than 1.06 lakh people in India.