New Delhi [India], February 3 (ANI): Noting that production is the foundation of India’s national security and is key to job creation, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday alleged that the Modi government’s ‘Make In India’ initiative has failed to revive it and share of manufacturing in GDP has come down from 15.3 per cent of GDP in 2014 to 12.6 per cent, which is lowest in the past 60 years.
Taking part in the motion of thanks on the President’s Address, Gandhi, who is the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, pitched for caste census and said applying AI to it would lead to a lot of possibilities.
Gandhi, who spoke in detail on the need to boost manufacturing, spoke about competition from China and said India has an opportunity with the revolution in energy and mobility.
He said China has been working on batteries, robots, motors, and optics for the last ten years, and it has at least a ten-year lead on India in this space.
“As the world stands on the brink of a technological and economic revolution, India needs a new vision for growth, production, and participation–one that directly addresses our two biggest challenges: the job crisis and the lack of opportunity for 90 per cent of Indians,” Gandhi posted on X later.
“Jobs come from production, which Make In India has failed to revive. But we have an opportunity with the revolution in energy and mobility – with renewable energy, batteries, electric motors and optics, and AI to bring these together. India must master a central role in this revolution, and boost production to give our youth hope for the future,” he said.
“Although China is 10 years ahead, we can catch up – with the right vision. An INDIA government would realign education, enlist experts, widely spread finance, and align our trade and foreign policies. Production is also the foundation of our national security. In a world where wars are not fought between armies but between industrial systems, our dependence on Chinese imports like motors and batteries puts us at risk,” he added.
Gandhi said India is fighting against inequality that is increasing social tensions by excluding the 90 per cent.
“We must conduct a caste census to understand where Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs and minorities stand today; and with the help of AI understand how best to ensure they have a fair share in the nation’s wealth and opportunities. It is only these two tracks in parallel – production and participation – which will create a robust growth story for India and a bright future for all our youth,” he said.
Slamming the government over President’s address, Gandhi in his speech said it was the same laundry list of things that the government has done.
He said there are basically four technologies that are driving this entire change in mobility, electric motors, batteries, optics and then on top of one can apply AI.
Gandhi said the question came to his mind is “what type of address would a INDIA gathbandhan government deliver, how would that address be different than the address”.
“And so today I would like to layout some dimensions of what an alternative address would look like, what the INDIA gathbandhan would probably focus on and where we would lay emphasis.”
“A universal problem that we have faced is that we have not been able to tackle the problem of unemployment. No! neither the UPA government nor today’s NDA government has given a clear-cut answer to the youth of India about employment. I don’t think anybody in this room will disagree with me,” he said.
“Any country basically organises two things, you can organise consumption and then you can organise production. Modern way of saying organising consumption is services, modern way of saying organising production is manufacturing, but there is more to production then simply manufacturing for example; agriculture also is about production.”
He said every government since 1990 has done a decent job on consumption, on organising consumption.
“And essentially what we have done is way of handing over the organization of production to the Chinese. So, this mobile phone, even though we are saying, we make this mobile phone in India, that is not a fact, this phone is not made in India, this phone is assembled in India all the components of this phone are made in China. The network that has produced this phone is made in China, is owned by China.”
“So, the first message I would give in a Presidential address would be that India has to focus completely on production, because if we do not focus on production and we continue to focus only on consumption, we will find that we will run huge deficits, we will increase inequality, and eventually, we will run into a serious problem- social problem because of unemployment, which we are already facing. If you look at the numbers of the amount of people who are in jail, if you look at the numbers that are spent on internal security, if you look at the numbers, spent on our police forces, they are all spiral, they are all rising and everybody understands, the social tension is on the rise in India,” he said.
Gandhi said there is a revolution taking place, an existing revolution, the world is transforming completely and a change that is taking place.
“We are moving from the world of the internal combustion engine to the world of the electric motor, we are moving from petrol to batteries, we are moving wind, solar potentially nuclear energy. So, our entire way of moving is changing and this is going to change every single thing, it is going to change warfare, it is going to change medical treatment, it is going to change education, it is going to change how we eat, it is going to change every single thing,” he said.
He said the government had a clear focus during called the computer revolution and the revolution now in the making will change everything.
“I want the youngsters in this country to think about. There is a war going on in Ukraine, the war in Ukraine is actually a war between the internal combustion engine and the motor, the electric motor is inside the drone, the engine is inside the tank and you look at what is going on in Ukraine. The tanks are dying by the thousands and small little drones with electric motors, small batteries not much bigger than that are destroying the entire tank, artillery infrastructure of both Ukraine and Russian,” he said.
“Drone is the electric motor, the drone is the battery, the drone also needs to see, so the drone is a camera. In the same way electric cars, the electric car is a motor, the electric car is batteries, the electric car is cameras, robots are exactly the same thing, robots are electric motors, multiple electric motors with cameras, with batteries and this is what the revolution is going to look like,” he said.
“There are basically four technologies that are driving this entire change in mobility, electric motors, batteries, optics and then on top of that you can apply AI. Now, people I want to tell the youngsters of this country, people talk about AI, but it’s important to understand that AI on its own, it’s absolutely meaningless because AI operates on top of data,” he added.
Gandhi said that without data, AI means nothing.
“If we look at data today, there is one thing which is very clear. Every single piece of data that comes out of the production system in the world, the data that was used to make this phone, the data that is used to make electric cars, the data that is used to make basically all electronics on the planet today is owned by China. And the consumption data is owned by the United States. In China the consumption data is owned by China, but in India companies like; Google, companies like; Facebook, companies like; Instagram, X. They own our consumption data. So, if India wants to talk about AI, it has to first answer the question what data is going to power that AI? And the answer today is, India doesn’t have that data, neither does India have production data, neither does India have consumption data,” he said.
The Congress leader said “India has handed its consumption data to the big American companies and the production data we don’t have anyway”.
Gandhi said children in schools should be taught about batteries, electric motors about how these things combine, about how drones, robots, electric cars are structured, “how they will work together and most importantly, we have to start building a production network, so that we can get access to production data.”
“China has been working on batteries, robots, motors, optics for the last ten-years, and we are behind. So, what would our President’s address say to the youngsters, we will choose critical areas in each one of these technologies and we will start to build capabilities in those areas. The second thing we would do, we would ensure that our banking system is not captured by two or three companies that basically do not allow you to build a production system, but our banking system is open, is dynamic and is accessible to small and medium businesses and to millions-and-millions of entrepreneurs who want to take part in the revolution,” he added. (ANI)
