Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi addressed the annual general meeting of industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi on Thursday.

This was his first interaction with business leaders after becoming party Vice President.

He started his speech with, "Its an honour for me to be here today."

"When I went to university in 1991, nobody knew India...that is not the case now thanks to you people. Over the last couple of years you have done a tremendous job.," he said.

He spoke about his train journey on the Gorakhpur Lokmanya Tilak express where he spoke with different commuters. He spoke about the tales he heard from them. The youngsters he met and the struggles of youngsters.

Some excerpts from his speech:

* India is home to the largest pool of human capital. It is the movement of people and ideas that is going to take the country forward.

* Democracy and technology has created a chain reaction in India. We are now sitting on an unstoppable tide of movement that is only going forward. We need to make it happen smoothly. We need to use our resource and empower everybody.

* It is our duty to provide India with physical infrastructure that connects India to the villages, cities and the rest of the world.

* We have to build roads that carry our strong ideas and people.

* We have to provide electricity for our kids to nurture, grow and see the world. The government cannot do it alone, we need your help.

* We need to make ideas move fast. Together we must ensure that our knowledge infrastructure is up-to date.

* We have the seeds of world class education but that needs to expand.

* Our problem is not joblessness it is the lack of training and skills.

* Our training infrastructure is defunct and outdated, we need to match up to the world standards.

* We have to build the structures for our human resource to learn, grow and be the initial movers.

* For the young, the difference between aspiration and empowerment is a job. You are the people who are going to take the lead for creation of jobs.

* This movement of people is threatened by lack of knowledge and lack of infrastructure. But excluding the people is the biggest threat, excluding the dalits, excluding the women and excluding the poor.

* John F Kennedy said "Rising tide raises all boats. " The women in the villages reply to this "Rahul bhaiyya, hummaare paas to naav hi nahi hai." It is not good enough to raise the tide, we have to give them the basic infrastructure to rise with the tide.

* The basic infrastructure means give everybody a basic minimum of job, education and information.

*The biggest problem people have is identification. This problem has to be looked into, has to be solved. Nandan Nilekani has helped massively to spearhead this issue.

* The women said they have no boats, The work they do , they are not only the boats, they are the waves.

* India will only move forward with inclusive growth. When people can work in harmony with varied economic class living in this country,

* Anger, hatred and prejudice do not contribute to growth. The government has strived to reduce the tensions between communities.

* There are some problems that require exponential solutions. From the green revolution to the white revolution all these are a result of exponential solutions.

* Sam Pitroda , Nandan Nilekani has combined with the government to provide major transformations to change the face of this country.

* I've come here because I believe in you . I cannot move forward without you. Let us work together to build this brave empowered new India. Adiji said in his speech that I am someone who spends a lot of time with the poor. India cannot go forward without partnership. Poor is one component, business another and the middle class is another component.

* It is not good to say that one is more important than the other we have to move forward cohesively.

* There are people doing in yoga in New York, that is the power of India, we are the beehive.

* Indians are always complaining because we are always dealing with complexity.

* We cannot give you simple answers because our environment is not simple. You guys deal with complexity everyday.

* You get tags in India. I got tagged that Im always with the poor.

* One aim in my life. It is an accident of faith. I happen to come from a chain of people. It is in my DNA. I have been put in a situation.

* The idea we love is of the guy on the horse. He is going to come charging through and everything in India will be alight. India's representation of a hero.

* I want to help Indian people give their voice. Doesn't matter if it is the poorest guy sitting in Amethi.

* Until we start pushing the people into the system, into the government, we cannot pioneer the wheels of change.

* Our idea is so big that it can carry India as well as everybody else.

* The idea was preached by Gandhiji, written in the Bible. The idea is compassion listening to what the other person is saying.

* I'm proud to be an Indian. I love the complexity of this country.

* Media guys asking me about marriage, about me being the PM, these are all irrelevant question. The only important question is how to get the voice of the people heard.

* You are the cutting edge in this country. When I say voice, I don't mean just the Indian voice, I mean everybody's voice. Listen, don't misunderstand tell the person to repeat.

* Our ideas flow out when we listen. Listen to everyone around you, listen to your friends and embrace the complexity of this country.

* Clogged political system is holding India back

* Thank you for having me and I would love to answer any questions that you might have.

The 42-year-old Congress scion, formally addressing a gathering such as this for the first time, said: "We tend to think of India as a nation, but if we go back 100 years, India was actually an energy...a force".

CII's annual general meetings over the years have seen many political bigwigs cutting across party lines making an appearance to enunciate their vision for economic growth. Congress president and Rahul's mother Sonia Gandhi have made at least two showings at the annual conference in the past.

This year's AGM was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday.

The meet was attended by top business leaders and industrialists like Bharti Airtel head Sunil Bharti Mittal, Godrej Group Chairman Adi Godrej and Wipro Chairman Azim Premji.

Around 1,500 industrialists from across the country were attending the meeting. The theme for this year's deliberation is "India Tomorrow: Imperatives of Growth, Security and Governance".