The impact of the Japan tsunami on Infosys will be minimal because the company gets less than 1 per cent revenues from this country, said Mr S. Gopalakrishnan, CEO and MD, Infosys Technologies.

“The indirect impact is what we will have to think about,” he said on the sidelines of the CII Karnataka Annual Members Day 2011. He said that the dangers of the nuclear reactor meltdown at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant could raise fears about nuclear energy and push up oil prices and lead to a disruption of the economy.

“The event is still unfolding and we need to focus on the tragedy,” he said. He expressed the hope that the reconstruction activity in Japan would generate economic activity, while also expressing fears that since Japan is a major exporter of electronic equipment, problems in that country could hurt the global consumer electronics industry.

According to the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) exports of electronics from Japan in 2010 accounted for over $133 billion. Many popular products, like the iPad, source components such as memory and battery from Japanese companies and shortage of these parts could affect the world economy.

Talking about India while addressing the CII session, Mr Gopalakrishnan said that India's economy, which currently stands at $1.3 trillion, should touch $32 trillion by 2030. “We will be growing 30 times in the next 20 years,” he said and pointed out that we will have to focus on social infrastructure, education and governance. “Over the last 20 years, we have added 250 million people to the middle class,” he noted and said that we should ensure that the next 20 years are better than the previous 20 years.

Mr Murugesh R. Nirani, Minister for Large and Medium Industries, Karnataka, said that the Global Investors' Meet (GIM) in June 2010 had attracted investments of Rs 1.32 lakh crore and that the target for the next GIM in 2012 was Rs 10 lakh crore.

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