New Delhi: Wipro chairman, Azim Premji on Tuesday advocated the adoption of a five pronged strategy to economically and socially transform India. He asked for an immediate initiation of land reforms, the overhauling of India's power sector and its health and primary education, besides pushing forward the inter-linking of rivers.

Delivering the JRD Tata Memorial Lecture, organised under the aegis of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), Premji also sought rationalisation in property taxes to boost up economic activities in housing and retail sector which will create immense employment opportunities.

"We need to overhaul our land related laws, taxation and information system. It is estimated that 90 per cent of land in India are subject to legal disputes over the ownership. Stamp duty ranges between 8-15 per cent of the property value, encouraging avoidance. On the other hand, property tax rates are low and collection is inefficient. All this has led to Indian lend prices being the highest among the Asian nations related to average incomes and low tax collections is hampering our ability to maintain urban infrastructure. Effective land reforms can really boost housing and retail sectors, two of the largest sectors of the economy outside of agriculture and generate huge employment opportunities,' said Premji.

The power sector, he said, was by far the biggest resource drain on the economy. Therefore, the government needed to eliminate power thefts and improve efficiency of generation, distribution and transmission as these changes will have a major impact on the fiscal deficit of the states, apart from bringing down cost of doing business.

The Wipro chairman also stressed the need for executing innovative projects like interlinking of rivers. `Less than 40 per cent of the cultivable land is under assured irrigation. Underground water table is declining at the rate of 5 per cent every year. In the medium term, water shortage will create a significant barrier to growth - whether agriculture, industry or urban infrastructure', said Premji.

Primary education and healthcare is another neglected area which needs to be immediately addressed to, he said.

In his own area of expertise, IT, Premji observed, `there are three kinds of drivers with varying amplitude and different time horizons, which I feel will dictate the future of economy and business. The first are the short term or immediate drivers. These are primarily various kinds of arbitrage opportunities that exist across various national economies and regions. Remember the growth experience of Indian software industry. The salary differential among software professionals between US and India was a great arbitrage opportunity on which initial success of the industry was built. Similar opportunity has arisen today in BPO industry and in pharmaceutical and biotech research'. ()