New Delhi: Asserting that data is the petrol which fuels the AI engine, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi Wednesday claimed that with the Indo-US interim trade deal, India will struggle to safely store the data of 1.5 billion Indians, and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been pressured to hand over the country’s prime resource to a foreign power.
In a post on X, Gandhi said the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution is bringing both threats and opportunities.
“Our IT and services sector, a shining star of our economy, is at risk, and thousands of software engineers and professionals will lose their livelihoods if we do not prepare for the storm that is coming,” he claimed, adding that there are opportunities too.
“Data is the petrol which fuels the AI engine. As I said in Parliament, India’s greatest asset is our brilliant people – and the enormous data we create,” he said.
Noting that in a few days, the government is hosting a grand AI Summit, Gandhi said it should have been an opportunity for India to assert leadership – to demonstrate how a country of 1.4 billion people can use its data to shape the global AI future on our own terms.
“Instead, a helpless PM Modi has surrendered to the US ‘chokehold’ in the trade deal. Under the pretext of ‘clearing barriers to digital trade’, every move to use our data for our own benefit will be opposed,” he said.
Already, large foreign companies enjoy a near monopoly on our data through Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Youtube, Amazon, Android, etc., and with this deal, India will struggle to safely store the data of 1.5 billion Indians in India, get transparency in their source codes and algorithms and tax the profits they make using our data, the Congress leader claimed.
“It’s a shame that our prime minister has been pressured to hand over India’s prime resource to a foreign power,” he alleged.
Earlier, participating in the debate on the Union Budget in Lok Sabha, Gandhi said that at the centre of this fight is the concept of AI.
“Everybody says that we are moving into the era of AI. I would like to warn the government that AI is going to have many, many consequences. One consequence of AI is going to be that something that we relied on, the Congress party and the UPA built the entire Indian IT industry, companies like Infosys, companies that are at the forefront of information technology, are going to struggle, they are going to be challenged,” he said.
The idea of becoming a software engineer, which is a very popular idea in India, is going to be challenged, he said.
“Lots of our software engineers are going to be replaced by AI. So, why am I saying this is, we are moving into a turbulent world, a dangerous world,” he said.
“Now, when you move into a dangerous world, what is the first thing that you have to understand? What are your strengths, as a person and as a nation? So, I would like to say to the House, what I think are the strengths of our great country, and I would say the central strength is our people – 1.4 billion people, brilliant, energetic, dynamic, who can challenge anybody in the world; they are our biggest strength.
“But, it’s not only the people, because in the 21st century, a very interesting thing has also happened: people create data. So, we have the biggest data pool on the planet, 1.4 billion people, which means a massive amount of data is being generated in India, and data is wealth,” Gandhi said.
He added that everybody talks about AI, but talking about AI is like talking about the internal combustion engine without talking about petrol.
“The petrol for AI is data meaning, if you have AI and you don’t have data, you have nothing. Now, which are the two biggest pools of data on the planet – the Indian pool and the Chinese pool? They (China) also have 1.4 billion people; we have a bigger population than them. We allow more freedom, we allow our people to do more dynamic things, so we have, in fact, more interesting data,” he said.
If the Americans want to remain a superpower and if they want to protect their dollar, the key to that is Indian data, he said.
“Why? Because the Chinese have a data pool of 1.4 billion people, and you take European data, you can take African data, you can take American data, add it all up, and still it does not compete with Chinese data,” Gandhi said.
“So, the real fight is taking place. I am saying what our strengths are? I am saying if India goes to the table, what do we put on the table, what do we say? Listen, this is what we put on the table, and it’s beautiful.
“What we put on the table is our people, their wisdom, what they do, their likes, dislikes, their imagination, their fear… This suddenly has got value in the 21st century, which it didn’t have in the 20th century,” he said.
“I remember so many people saying that population is a weight, population is a disaster. No! Population is the biggest asset you can have. It’s a strength, but it’s only a strength if you recognise that data is important,” he said.
The Congress leader also claimed that as part of the deal with the US, India gives up control over its digital trade rules, there is no need for data localisation, there would be free data flow to the United States, a limit on digital tax, and there would be no need to disclose any source code.
