"Technology is a global game now. It is borderless and India today is at the forefront of being the major software and services major.

"India is well poised to take advantage of this big technology as it has a unique combination of technical expertise and entrepreneurship culture, which is better than the Chinese," according to Paul Saffo, the futurologist and the director of the Institute for the Future, a 34-year-old research and forecasting foundation located in Menlo Park, California.

Saffo is currently in India to attend Nasscom 2003, a global conference on IT currently on in Mumbai.

Saffo has been a technology forecaster studying long-term technology trends and their impact on business and society.

He has written essays about change in numerous publications, including The Harvard Business Review, Wired, The New York Times and Fortune.

The author of Dreams in Silicon Valley and The Road From Trinity, Saffo is also a member of the Stanford Law School Advisory Council on Law, Science & Technology. He is also Silicon Valley's resident intellectual.

On India, he said, "I am very optimistic on India's potential." But, he indicated that Indians themselves have not been able to appreciate and realise their own talent owing to the pre-occupation with the global economy.

Saffo implied that India should not only concentrate on the developed world but should also be selling technology and working with the developing nations such as Africa and Middle East.