After a stop in New York City, he headed to Silicon Valley, where he visited Tesla and attended a dinner with tech chieftains like Satya Nadella of Microsoft and SundarPichai of Google. That inspiration was indirectly what led to Apple.
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Before leaving for India from New York, the Prime Minister tweeted that his U.S. visit “demonstrates the extraordinary depth and diversity of our relationship”, asserting that “a lot of ground has been covered in these few days”. Satya Nadella, however, didn’t say how he intends to accomplish the feat.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to step up philanthropic activities in India and also put more resources behind bringing more people online in the country.
On climate change, the Prime Minister asserted that India’s commitment is second to none. In April, a group of Indian technology and internet companies pulled out of the project saying it compromised the principle of net neutrality and that websites and apps should be equally accessible.
Qualcomm, the American chip manufacturer, announced that it would invest up to $150 million in startups across India. The Prime Minister said that the emphasis should not be exclusively on emission caps, but should also be on providing finance and technology for clean energy to the developing countries.
The Prime Minister has an image of an Internet-savvy leader and is even keen on selfies.
“I welcomed the progress in our Joint Strategic Vision on Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Regions and our engagement with partners like Japan”, he said.
This seemingly inconsequential incident of confusing Internet and social media by the Prime Minister of India, can emerge to a different proportion when seen in context of Net neutrality, the allegations against Facebook and that the statement was made right inside the Facebook campus.
But while there is cooperation in many spheres, there are also differences. “I came from a very poor family…” “We are prepared to play a leadership role on the subject”, he said.
“We used to have elections every five years and now we can have them every five minutes”, he added. “This is a huge strength of democracy”. The country trails behind the United States in using phones to conduct Google searches.
Social media, as we recognise it now, was only a fraction of the entire Internet experience back then and also the term itself was not in popular usage.
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The electrifying moments in San Jose, California, where he addressed a boisterous crowd of Indians marked the end of his much-publicised Silicon Valley tour.
