Modi has digital designs on Silicon Valley

Washington, September 15: After wowing Indian Americans on the East Coast and wooing US big business to ‘Make in India’ last year, Prime Minister rendra Modi is now out to win over the Silicon Valley for his Digital India initiative. The first Indian leader to visit California in more than 30 years later this month, Modi will go to Facebook for a town hall style question answer session and visit other top tech companies like Google and Adobe systems as also electric carmaker Tesla.

As the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced on Sunday the September 27 town hall at the company’s Menlo Park, California, headquarters will “discuss how communities can work together to address social and economic challenges.”

Modi, who has more Facebook fans than any politician except for Barack Obama, is the first Indian prime minister to visit the Bay Area since Morarji Desai picked up an award at University of California, Berkeley in 1978 and Indira Gandhi visited Los Angeles in 1982.

Besides meetings with Sundar Pichai and Shantanu rayen, India born chief executives of Google and Adobe respectively, he is also expected to attend events with Indian American entrepreneurs and social investors. At Tesla, more than the zero emissions cars that it makes, Modi may be interested in its “Powerwall”, a home battery that charges using electricity generated from solar panels, for India’s clean energy initiative. Modi’s visit to the Bay Area, home to a large number of Indian techies, is designed to win support for his “Digital India,” initiative that aims to expand Internet access, boost electronics manufacturing and develop apps to improve the delivery of government services.

“The visit allows Modi to build relationships with tech firms that want to invest in India, while also fostering support from the Bay Area’s influential Indian-American community,” Venktesh Shukla, president of the Silicon Valley branch of non profit organization TiE, also known as The Indus Entrepreneurs, told the San Jose Mercury News. (IANS)