“It’s an honor to be welcoming PM Modi to Silicon Valley this coming weekend”, Pichai said in a YouTube video posted Wednesday. They also accused Modi’s government of cracking down on advocacy groups and harassing scholars and critics.
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And while Indians are obviously excited about this first-of-its-kind trip, inhabitants of the techi-fied valley seem to be very taken with the visit, with top CEOs and other senior officers across a spectrum of corporations, extending their welcome to the Indian PM.
Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Sunder Pichai of Google, John Chamber of Cisco, Paul Jacobs executive chairman of Qualcomm and Santanu Narayan of Adobe would make presentations on digital technology.
Others critics want to highlight allegations Modi did not stop religious riots that killed at least 1,000 people, mostly minority Muslims, while he was running the Gujarat state in 2002.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of technology giant Google, on Thursday said India has long been an exporter of talent to technology companies, but is now undergoing its own revolution that will have great benefits for the 1.2 billion people in the country. Praveen Shastri, a priest of the Sanatan Mandir, New Jersey, and also a member of the OFBJP, said that he had been invited by Prime Minister Modi for his swearing-in ceremony in New Delhi.
Apart from the more specific issues, some of the general problems thwarting the growth of the United States firms in India is poor electricity, slow internet and lack of skilled engineers.
“(Modi’s) top programs… are based on the idea that worldwide companies will invest money and bring in technological know-how to build out the infrastructure – digital and otherwise – that India needs”, said Mukesh Aghi, president of the US-Indian Business Council.
Modi, he said, shares Obama’s goal of a deeper strategic and economic ties between India and the US.
The prime minister’s visit comes as an opportunity for companies like Facebook and Google to impress upon the government the hurdles they face in the country in terms of unreliable electricity, land and labour laws.
AJA plans protests outside the SAP Center in San Jose on September 27, where Modi is scheduled to address to some 18,500 Indian-Americans. He would leave for New York the same night.
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On Monday, Modi will have a bilateral with French President Francois Hollande, followed by a meeting with the Emir of Qatar, and then World Bank president Jim Yong Kim.
