N R Narayana Murthy, chief mentor of Infosys, said that India should now focus on becoming the world's preferred manufacturing destination. By becoming the global outsourcing and offshoring manufacturing destination, millions of jobs would be created in rural areas.

Murthy said, "When one talks about outsourcing and offshoring, one only thinks in terms of software. Frankly, I believe we have to go beyond that and include manufacturing in that definition as China has done."

Murthy pointed out that 26 percent of the country's GDP comes from 65 percent of the people in rural areas through agriculture. He said, "It means...you are looking at 320 dollars (per person per capita GDP) for 65 percent of people. What it means is less than a dollar a day."

Murthy added, "If we have to make life better for these (rural) people and give them reasonable standards of living, disposable incomes, healthcare and nutrition and education, I personally believe we have to look at low-tech manufacturing to start with and then high-tech manufacturing in a big way just as China has done because most of these people are semi-literate or educated at a very basic level."

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