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Silicon Valley stars and start-ups signed on to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's expansive and passionate vision of a “Digital India“ this weekend, announcing a slew of initiatives expected to lead to more intimate ties between the world's famed tech eco-system and a fertile market replete with both problems and solutions.
Microsoft said it will partner with New Delhi to bring low-cost broadband connectivity to 500,000 villages in India, Google said it will help India set up base for free Wi-Fi at 500 railway stations, and Qualcomm pledged to invest $150 million in Indian start-ups, as America's tech giants, spanning Seattle to San Jose to San Diego on the Pacific Coast, responded with alacrity to Mo di's espousal of India's transformation “on a scale that is, perhaps, unmatched in human history ."
A dinner engagement with Silicon Valley CEOs was the centerpiece of Modi's 30-hour barnstorming of the Bay Area that included field trips to Tesla, Facebook, and Google. In a speech that was a marked departure from the somnolent peroration typical of political leaders, the social media-savvy PM connected instantly with tech pashas, teeing off with a joke about how he had already “met many of you in Delhi and New York, and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram -the new neighborhoods of our new world.“
It set the tone for some thoughtful reflections that impressed the assembled digerati who generally hold politicos in disdain. Microsoft's Satya Nadella said the PM seemed to know how tech is a powerful tool to enable human ingenuity, and Pentium chip-maker Vinod Dham enthused about Modi's vision for social transformation through tech.
Modi answered critics who he said see the digital economy as a tool of the privileged, saying, “Ask the taxi driver or corner vendor in India what he has gained from his cell phone, and the debate is settled.“ PM Modi on Saturday cited numerous examples of workaday people benefiting from technology to argue that he sees 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,“ he added.
The dinner was attended by over 300 chief executives of top tech companies, including Times Internet Ltd CEO Satyan Gajwani. It followed a community reception where an adulatory crowd stampeded around him to get into group photographs and sneak in selfies, attesting to his popularity abroad even as it broadcast their lack of decorum. A field trip to Tesla demonstrated his keen sense of identifying technologies that could address India's workaday problems.
Although he posed next to a flashy red Tesla car, he showed greater interest in the company's powerwall, incorporating its battery storage technology , primarily wanting to know the prospects of solar charging and how best to give off-grid energy access in India.
When he returned to his hotel to receive Apple's Tim Cook, he wanted to know, among other things, if and how Apple Pay could help his signature Jan Dhan Yojana that involves direct money transfers to the less privileged in India.
MODI COAST to COAST - Silicon Valley logs in to Digital India: IT giants shower praise & projects
Microsoft said it will partner with New Delhi to bring low-cost broadband connectivity to 500,000 villages in India, Google said it will help India set up base for free Wi-Fi at 500 railway stations, and Qualcomm pledged to invest $150 million in Indian start-ups, as America's tech giants, spanning Seattle to San Jose to San Diego on the Pacific Coast, responded with alacrity to Mo di's espousal of India's transformation “on a scale that is, perhaps, unmatched in human history ."
A dinner engagement with Silicon Valley CEOs was the centerpiece of Modi's 30-hour barnstorming of the Bay Area that included field trips to Tesla, Facebook, and Google. In a speech that was a marked departure from the somnolent peroration typical of political leaders, the social media-savvy PM connected instantly with tech pashas, teeing off with a joke about how he had already “met many of you in Delhi and New York, and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram -the new neighborhoods of our new world.“
It set the tone for some thoughtful reflections that impressed the assembled digerati who generally hold politicos in disdain. Microsoft's Satya Nadella said the PM seemed to know how tech is a powerful tool to enable human ingenuity, and Pentium chip-maker Vinod Dham enthused about Modi's vision for social transformation through tech.
Modi answered critics who he said see the digital economy as a tool of the privileged, saying, “Ask the taxi driver or corner vendor in India what he has gained from his cell phone, and the debate is settled.“ PM Modi on Saturday cited numerous examples of workaday people benefiting from technology to argue that he sees 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,“ he added.
The dinner was attended by over 300 chief executives of top tech companies, including Times Internet Ltd CEO Satyan Gajwani. It followed a community reception where an adulatory crowd stampeded around him to get into group photographs and sneak in selfies, attesting to his popularity abroad even as it broadcast their lack of decorum. A field trip to Tesla demonstrated his keen sense of identifying technologies that could address India's workaday problems.
Although he posed next to a flashy red Tesla car, he showed greater interest in the company's powerwall, incorporating its battery storage technology , primarily wanting to know the prospects of solar charging and how best to give off-grid energy access in India.
When he returned to his hotel to receive Apple's Tim Cook, he wanted to know, among other things, if and how Apple Pay could help his signature Jan Dhan Yojana that involves direct money transfers to the less privileged in India.
MODI COAST to COAST - Silicon Valley logs in to Digital India: IT giants shower praise & projects
