Taking right steps to climb the technology ladder

"We want to develop a really strong IT industry. India is the leader in software development so we hope Indian companies will play a major role," said Wang Jiangping, the vice-governor of Guizhou.

Sujit Chatterjee, the president of TCS China, said in a recent interview that there is significant potential and headroom for both India and China to grab a larger share of the global IT pie, working hand-in-hand.

"China has over the last three to four decades done significantly well in bringing down overall costs to economies of scale. Indian IT, on the other hand, brings in significant amounts of value creation through innovation," said Chatterjee.

"Together India and China would be a compelling proposition."

Though both India and China have long talked about complementing each other in hardware and software, there have been very few instances of actual cooperation.

And that's where the new "Made in China 2025" will really make its mark, say industry experts.

Leon Liao, head of marketing at Infosys China, tells me that globally the IT industry is undergoing tremendous change, with digital technology fundamentally transforming the world we are in, reshaping it with a digitalized future.

"India, as a world leader in IT, is at the forefront of software development, big data, analytics, cloud computing and other advanced technologies.

"China has a lot to learn from India in terms of software development and services, IT technology, designing and professional skills although it outruns India in areas like hardware manufacturing, infrastructure, and has a relatively larger volume of IT industry output and industrial and operational scale," said Liao.

He is certain the two countries can learn from each other, complement their respective weaknesses using the other's strength, and cooperate to achieve mutual wins.