Congress party's vice president and heir apparent Rahul Gandhi is reportedly being sent for study tours around the world in preparation for the 2019 national elections in India.

"These study tours are set to benefit him, the Congress party as well as this nation at large," said CP Joshi, AICC general secretary told India Today. "With exposure to new technology, he will be able to influence new policy."

"Rahul wants to get new thinking and ideas to this country."

Joshi told the newspaper that other political leaders "obsess over the past", but Gandhi was thinking about the future, and this tours were meant to enhance his knowledge of what India could learn from other countries.

Gandhi visited Norway last month, where he met with entrepreneurs and dignitaries, and visited the world's largest facility for combating climate change. He is expected to travel to the Silicon Valley in US later this month to "expand his thoughts on artificial intelligence".

Joshi claimed that these visits were part of a plan to prepare Gandhi for the next general elections. Calling the PM's decision to demonetise large currency notes in India last year "ill-informed policy-making", Joshi claimed that India's foreign policy was "in shambles".

The next Indian general elections will take place in 2019. Gandhi is expected to be projected as the Congress party's Prime Ministerial face. The 47-year-old leader is currently a member of Parliament for the Lok Sabha from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. He was made vice president of the Congress party four years ago.

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