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News India Times October 9, 2015
– that’s all you need to know
Special Report
BySumanGuhaMozumder
outers, iOS, Android,
networks, optical fiber
network, or say
Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, and et al – are
not words that usually are in
politicians’ lexicon, and spoken
– rarely, if at all, especially when
talking about strengthening
bilateral relationship on a peo-
ple-to-people level.
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, who was seemingly an
exception when he visited
SiliconValley last week meeting
with the CEOs and top leader-
ship of companies like Google,
Microsoft, Apple and Telsa
Motors in the Mecca of high-
tech during his two-day visit to
theWest Coast, did exactly that –
talking in a language and using
words that are easily under-
standable to the likes of Google
and Microsoft.
He spoke in a language that
CEOs of top tech companies
understood, and as a result
pledged to partner with India in
its development goals.
Modi met with Microsoft’s
CEO Satya Nadella, Google’s
CEO Sundar Pichai and
Alphabet’s CEO and Google co-
founder Larry Page, Facebook
CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple
CEO Tim Cook, Qualcomm’s
Executive Chairman Paul E.
Jacobs, CISCO’s John Chambers,
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narain
and Tesla Motors CEO Elon
Musk during his packed two-day
trip where he presented a strong
case for top American compa-
nies to come to India to help
spur the country’s development
and also to expand their busi-
nesses.
“His trip was a show of force
of how far India has come— and
how well he understands tech-
nology. Modi was able to stand
head to head with SiliconValley’s
leaders and he outshone them.
He understood and articulated
the role of technology in trans-
forming India better than they
could,” VivekWadhwa, Fellow,
Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock
Center for Corporate
Governance, Stanford University,
told Desi Talk.
“I have spoken to many peo-
ple who say the same things —
that we were blown away with
Modi’s understanding of the
issues and ability to inspire audi-
ences whether at the communi-
ty address at SAP, or in meetings
with the top-notch tech-entre-
preneurs,”Wadhwa , who is also
director of research, CERC, Pratt
School of Engineering, Duke
University, told this correspon-
dent.
Modi said at Digital India
Dinner Sept 27 in San Jose,
attended among others, by
Nadella, Pichai and Narain, that
in the digital age there is an
opportunity to transform lives of
people in ways that was hard to
imagine just a couple of decades
ago and that is what sets people
apart from the century that has
just been left behind.
“There may be still some who
see the digital economy as the
tool of the rich, educated and
the privileged. But, ask the taxi
driver or the corner vendor in
India what he has gained from
his cell phone, and the debate
gets settled. “I see technology as
a means to empower and as a
tool that bridges the distance
between hope and opportunity.
Social media is reducing social
barriers. It connects people on
the strength of human values,
not identities,” Modi said.
A day after in SiliconValley
Modi had a glimpse into the
future of his project of promot-
ing and fostering entrepreneur-
ship when he visited the "India-
US Startup Konnect 2015"
exposition showcasing India's
strengths in the start-up
ecosystem through the displays
of some 40 companies.
Reid Garrett Hoffman, co-
founder of LinkedIn and an
entrepreneur, venture capital-
ist, said the key success of
SiliconValley and the global
tech and entrepreneurship hub
was not start-ups, but scale-ups.
"What the prime minister is
doing in terms of 'Digital India'
is a great leadership," he said.
Google announced in the
presence of Modi at their head-
quarters that the Internet giant
to begin with will provide high-
speed publicWi-Fi in 400 Indian
railway stations that carry mil-
lions of passengers every day,
giving the company an impor-
tant headway in the country.
Google is working with the
Indian Railways and RailTel, a
government-owned provider of
telecommunications infrastruc-
ture to the railways, to initially
cover 100 of the busiest stations
in India before the end of 2016.
“Even with just the first 100
stations online, this project will
makeWi-Fi available for the
more than 10 million people
who pass through every day,"
wrote Google CEO Sundar Pichai
in a blog post.
From next month, Google will
make it possible for people to
type in 10 different languages in
India, including Gujarati. The
feature will go live in the next
month.
It was not just Google.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
announced that the company
plans to partner with the Indian
government to bring in low-cost
broadband connectivity to
500,000 villages in India. “We
believe that lost-cost broad band
connectivity coupled with the
scale of cloud computing intelli-
gence that can be harnessed
from data, can help drive cre-
ativity, efficiency and productivi-
ty across governments and busi-
nesses of all sizes,” Nadella said
at the meeting with Modi.
Microsoft also announced the
availability of its cloud services
operating out of India’s data cen-
ters, will become operational
next week.
During his sojourn in
California Modi met with
California Gov. Edmund Brown
and later with Salman Khan,
founder of Khan Academy, a
non-profit educational organiza-
tion that is a free online educa-
tional platform producing
videos on diverse subjects for
students.
R
Prime Minister Modi flanked by CEO and COO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, at the Facebook head-
quarters in Menlo Park, California, Sept. 27. Below left, Modi with Zuckerberg during town hall meeting at Facebook’s head-
quarters. Below right, Modi with Google CEO Sundar Pichai at the Google campus
in Mountain View, California, Sept. 27.
Reuters
Modi Networks WithWho's Who Of Silicon Valley
