Rahul Gandhi showed deep understanding of IT sector: Syed Amidi

Washington:

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is on a tour of America. He spent the first half of his day on Wednesday with Silicon Valley-based startup entrepreneurs, who are known for pioneering work in the field of artificial intelligence and cutting-edge technologies. Sitting in the front row of the 'Plug and Play' auditorium along with Indian Overseas Congress chairperson Sam Pitroda and a few other key colleagues travelling with him from India, Rahul Gandhi was seen in a panel discussion of experts on various aspects of issues such as artificial intelligence, big data, machine learning and their impact on mankind in general and issues such as governance, social welfare measures and fake news.

Based in Sunnyvale in California, the Plug and Play Tech Center is one of the largest incubators of startups. According to its CEO and founder Saeed Amidi, more than 50 per cent of the startups in Plug and Play have founders of Indian or Indian American. Amidi told PTI after the event that Rahul Gandhi has shown a deep understanding of the IT sector and his knowledge about the latest and cutting-edge technologies is quite impressive.

Participating in a serious conversation with Amidi and Fixnix startup founder Shawn Sankaran, Rahul Gandhi tried to link all the technologies to the impact they have on the common man in remote villages of India. So you have to have a system where power is relatively decentralised," he said, adding that there have been massive "bureaucratic hurdles" in this direction.

Rahul Gandhi compared data to gold and said that countries like India have realized its true potential. "In such a situation, there is a need for proper regulations on data security and security," he said.

However, on the issue of Pegasus 'spyware' and similar technology, Rahul Gandhi told the people present there that he was not worried about it. He said there was a time when he knew his phone was being "tapped" and joked on his iPhone, "Hello! Mr Modi."

"I think my iPhone was tapped. You as a nation and also as an individual need to make rules regarding privacy of data information," he said. That's my understanding."

"If the country is interested in phone tapping, it is not a battle worth fighting. I think whatever work I do, it is in front of the government."

Sankaran, who hosted Gandhi for the AI event at Plug and Play, said he was impressed by his understanding on the latest developments in technology.

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(This story has not been edited by the NDTV team; it has been published directly from the Syndicate feed.) )