China was far behind India in the software sector and India should focus its efforts towards leveraging this lead in forging ahead in the global market, Chairman and Chief Mentor of Infosys [Get Quote] Narayana Murthy said.

Addressing a group of 125 interns at the the Infosys global internship programme in Bangalore on Monday, he said China had done the best job in the world in manufacturing.

However, it was far behind India in the area of IT softwares. "India has had a lead of 20 years over China," he said, explaining the reasons.

Moreover, India attracted the middle class professionals, who worked hard, understood customers and operations better and are fairly smart. India also developed a fairly advanced system, processing and methodology for distribution development model, he said, adding Indian companies also took to quality in a big way.

However, Indian companies, he said, should not underestimate China which was an "extraordinary nation and if it decided to put its soul into something it did it well."

China also had an excellent education system which it has been successfully focusing on, an example that could be emulated by other nations as well, he said.

Replying to a question posed by an intern on Infosys serving the Chinese market, he said Infosys currently was working with multinationals in China in phase one. In phase two, it would work with local Chinese company.

Every major player had 'serious' operations in China, which was a very important market and is growing. It had a two trillion plus dollar economy with $950 billion exports.