Rahul Gandhi calls for stronger industrial, manufacturing base in India

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “failing to grasp” innovations like drones, which require a “strong industrial system”

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “failing to grasp” innovations like drones, which require a “strong industrial system.” He called for a “strong production base” to build “real industrial prowess” and generate employment for the youth.

Rahul Gandhi said that Modi’s claims about India becoming “number one in AI” are “complete junk” as India neither has the production network, nor the consumption data. (@RahulGandhi/X)

“Drones have revolutionised warfare, combining batteries, motors and optics to manoeuvrer 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,” Gandhi posted on X, accompanying a nine-minute video.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is yet to comment on this. Story will be updated once the party makes a statement.

In the video, he cited the example of a drone manufactured by the Chinese company DJI, which is sold as a toy in India. He explained that the use of motors, lithium batteries, and the connection to telecom equipment (via the device used to control the drone) is transforming the nature of warfare in Ukraine.

“The sad fact is that we’re nowhere here. We don’t make any of the components inside this. We don’t understand how it’s made. We certainly don’t make any of the optics [camera]. We don’t understand how it’s made. And that’s what my speech was getting at that this is actually where we should be playing and the network that produces this is where the real value is and all AI is actually going to be operating on this network,” Gandhi said.

Gandhi said that Modi’s claims about India becoming “number one in AI” are “complete junk” as India neither has the production network, nor the consumption data.

“India has given away its consumption data to large multinational companies and India doesn’t even play in the production space,” he added