Wipro chairman Azim Premji has said India is far from coming out with an international computer or electronics product but can play a significant role in moving up the value chain in product design.

“I think we are still far from it. The role that we can play is in moving up the value chain in product design, doing more of risk sharing basis and doing more in terms of outcome-based basis. And we have done that fairly successfully,” he said.

?Over the past 15 years and more, specifically over the past 10 years, there has been so much low hanging fruit in the IT services industry in terms of global opportunity and now in terms of emerging domestic opportunities that companies – both large and small – have not built up the amount of enterpreneurship to experiment with products that are essentially being determined in the market place,? Premji said in an open session after delivering the keynote address at the two-day India Semiconductor Association Vision Summit here on Monday.

He said Indian computer and electronic companies still operated on design arbitrage. Premji said a global product significantly comes out only by understanding very intimately the customer, who is based in westernised countries and subsequently in terms of all the marketing gizmos and the distribution requirements that take the products into the market place.

He said with the quality of infrastructure that India had for manufacturing and the quality of logistics – transport logistics – that the country had for manufacturing, it was not going to happen. ?Even if India becomes a hub for manufacturing of electronic products or telecom products, they (the manufacturing companies) will have to piggyback on international exports,? Premji said.

However, he said in niche areas like medical products and power stabilisers, India could come out with global products.

Earlier, Premji said there was a need for increased localisation of products, supported adoption and an evolved business model to bridge the gap with global market place. “Innovation is fundamentally the underlying theme for success,” he said adding technology and managerial innovation go hand-in-hand.

?We should work on creating an entrepreneurial spirit in the organisation and collaborate and co-innovate in the eco system,? Premji added.