Paolo Alto (California), Sep 27

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his one-on-one engagement with the tech honchos of Silicon Valley with a 15-minute interaction with Apple chief executive Tim Cook.

The lining up of such meetings include Who's Who of the tech world in this part of the US, including MicroSoft's Satya Nadella, Google's Sundar Pichai, Qualcomm's Paul Jacobs, Cisco's John Chambers, Adobe's Shantanu Narayen and TiE's Venk Shukla.

Cook told the prime minister that Apple has a major connect with India and that the company's co-founder, the late Steve Jobs, went to the South Asian country for inspiration.

After his arrival at Norman Y. Minte San Jose International Airport, Modi -- who is the first Indian prime minister to visit the US West Coast since Indira Gandhi did in 1982 -- had an informal meeting with the Indian diaspora first and then left for the Tesla Motors facility.

Tesla's chief executive Elon Musk then gave the prime minister, who is an ardent supporter of new and renewable energy, a tour of the company's trend-setting electric car plant here.

"Prime Minister Modi and I talked about electricity generation and how there are ways to skip ahead with it as with cellphones," Musk, also the company's principal engineer, inventor and investor, said later.

Modi tours Tesla Motors, meets Indian diaspora

Tesla Motors' iconic CEO Elon Musk on Saturday gave Prime Minister Narendra Modi a tour of the company's trend-setting electric car plant in Palo Alto as he arrived here for a tech tour of Silicon Valley.

Modi, on a 36 hour whirlwind tour of Silicon Valley to give a strong push to his drive for technological innovation in India, visited the Tesla Motors plant to see the path-breaking inventions on renewable energy.

"Prime Minister Modi and I talked about electricity generation and how there are ways to skip ahead with it as with cellphones," Musk, the company's principal engineer, inventor and investor, said later.

"Engines of the future. PM @narendramodi takes a tour of @TeslaMotors, leading builder of electric cars," tweeted External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup.

The first Indian leader to visit California in more than three decades, Modi is set to have a series of meetings with the tech titans of Silicon Valley.

They include Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai, Indian-American chief executives of Microsoft and Google respectively, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

With many an Indian at the forefront of innovation in the Silicon Valley, Modi will be looking at how to maximise opportunities at a digital economy dinner Saturday evening.

Several Indian-American tech leaders as also Cisco Chairman John Chambers, and Qualcomm Chairman Paul Jacobs among others would be attending.

Modi began his tour of Silicon valley with an interaction with the Indian-American community at the Imperial Ballroom of Hotel Fairmont here.

Singer Kailash Kher met Modi and a woman tied a rakhi to him during the interaction. Members of the Sikh and Gujarati community also met him later.

Earlier on arrival at the Norman Y. Minte San Jose International Airport, he was given a red carpet welcome with San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo and his wife receiving him.

An enthusiastic crowd of supporters was on hand to welcome him amid chants of "Modi Modi" as he alighted from the Air India one aircraft greeting them with a Namaste.

Amid tight security and barricading, fans reached out to the Prime Minister for handshakes and autographs.

Many wearing tricolour scarves and waving paper Indian flags held aloft signs saying "We Support Digital India." There were also banners saying "USA loves India".