Narendra Modi will be visiting the U.S. from 23 to 28 September 2015. During the said tour, he is expected to visit a number of important places such as Silicon Valley. Here he will address a congregation of Indian-Americans. He will also be speaking at the Stanford University, one of the most well-known and prestigious of its kind around the world. However, in the initial part of his visit, he will be taking part in meetings at the United Nations headquarters in New York. He is expected to visit the San Francisco Bay Area for a couple of days.
Meeting at Silicon Valley
At the moment, huge preparations are underway at the Silicon Valley to host the Indian Prime Minister. Silicon Valley incidentally is referred to as the tech hub of the world. Here Modi will speak to a gathering of almost 20,000 Indian-Americans. The meeting will be held at the SAP Centre, which is an indoor arena located at San Jose in California. In 33 years, Modi is the first prime minister from India to visit this area. The Indo-American community in the West Coast of the US has issued a press release where it has detailed the preparations being taken for Modi’s visit.
As per available information, it is expected that before the meeting as well as after it a number of highly-important programmes and meetings will take place. These meetings and programmes will serve to promote the concepts of entrepreneurship and innovation that is supposed to be a common trait of both India, under the aegis of Modi, and the Silicon Valley. Modi is supposed to pay a visit at the offices of Google as well. On 28 September he will head back to New York where he will meet Barack Obama. Modi had visited the U.S. in September 2014 as well. During that visit the Indian-American community had held a grand event in his honour at the Madison Square Garden of New York. Silicon Valley is part of the San Francisco Bay Area, where almost half a million Indian-Americans stay.
How will this visit help India?
Richard Verma, the US Ambassador to India, says that there are plenty of expectations surrounding Modi’s ensuing visit, especially in the Silicon Valley area. He expects this visit to help create the chance for exploring new technologies that will help India develop infrastructure such as the Smart Cities. Verma has stated that the interest is not limited to the Indian-American community, which has earned his praise for creating a bridge between the cultures of entrepreneurship and innovation of India and the US, and changing the high technology sector of the U.S. in the last 20 years. Modi will also be attending a summit to be organised on 25 September by the UN on sustainable development, which is a major global issue these days. It is expected that this visit will open up fresh possibilities for exploring new technologies that will also help India provide better education to its masses, and provide proper electricity to the teeming millions.
According to Verma, American companies are also eager to partner with India. This is great news considering the less-than-ideal state that the outsourcing industry in India finds itself in. In fact, they are said to be excited about the visit and looking forward to the same. The diplomat has further revealed that under the aegis of Modi and Obama, the two governments are working closely in order to up their engagement levels and come up with new programmes that will help them reach certain goals. The ambassador stated that remarkable progress has been achieved in that direction and they are looking to take even bigger strides in the years ahead.
How are India and the U.S. helping each other?
India is presently the second biggest investor in the U.S. Verma states that a survey has found out that India has created at least 91,000 jobs and put in 15 billion dollars. In 2005 almost 85 Indian companies were working in the US. Now the number has crossed 200. Verma states that Indian organisations are operative in different sectors such as IT, construction, and automotives. It is expected that in the next five years the investments and jobs created by these companies will only increase. In the meantime, the US has also increased its investments in India. In 2004, it had invested 7.7 billion dollars but now the amount has gone up to 28 billion. More than 500 US-based organisations are working in India as well.
