India needs clear vision to produce new tech, not empty words: Rahul Gandhi

Congress MP and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said while India has the talent, it needs a strong production base, and not empty words, to build industrial prowess in new technology to give its youth jobs.

In a post on X, Gandhi highlighted how China has started producing drones which are revolutionising warfare across the world, saying India needs to develop a strategy to become competitive in this area.

"Drones have revolutionised warfare, combining batteries, motors and optics to manoeuver and communicate on the battlefield in unprecedented ways. But drones are not just one technology — they are bottom-up innovations produced by a strong industrial system.

"Unfortunately, PM Modi has failed to grasp this. While he delivers 'teleprompter' speeches on AI, our competitors are mastering new technologies. India needs a strong production base, not empty words," he said in the post, taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"India has immense talent, scale and drive. We must have a clear vision and build real industrial prowess to give our youth jobs and lead India into the future," Gandhi added.

The Congress leader also tagged a nine-minute video on drone technology with the post, saying India has the talent and engineering skills to develop such technology for the future.

This ties up with Gandhi's 3 February speech in Parliament during the motion of thanks on the President's speech, when he said the four technologies driving change in mobility are electric motors, batteries, optics, and application of artificial intelligence (AI). "AI on its own is absolutely meaningless, as it operates on top of data. In India, consumption data is owned by the US through companies such as Google, Facebook, and Instagram," he had said.

During his speech, he also said China has a 10-year lead over India in terms of the revolution, indicating what a President nominated by an INDIA bloc government would say, vis-à-vis what incumbent President Droupadi Murmu actually said.

"Our President's address will say to youngsters, we will choose critical areas in each one of these technologies and we will start to build capabilities in those areas. We would ensure our banking system is not captured by 2-3 companies, our banking system is open, dynamic and accessible to small and medium businesses," he said.

Gandhi also claimed the reason China was inside Indian territory was because 'Make in India' had failed at the implementation stage, and India was refusing to produce. "I am worried that India is going to give up this revolution to the Chinese once again," he said.