America
Modi interacts with Indian community in Silicon Valley
San Jose (California), Sep 27
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi began his tour of Silicon valley with an interaction with
the Indian-American community as he arrived here to give a strong push
to his drive for technological innovation in India.
Singer
Kailash Kher shared the stage with Modi at the community reception
hosted by the Indian diaspora at the Imperial Ballroom of Hotel Fairmont
here.
A woman tied a rakhi to him during the interaction. Members of the Sikh and Gujarati community also met him.
Earlier
on arrival at the Norman Y. Minte San Jose International Airport, Modi
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".
"Landed in San Jose to a great welcome. Eagerly awaiting the programmes in the coming 2 days," Modi tweeted.
"Straight
to the community. PM attends Diaspora event in San Jose, greets leading
Indians/PIOs," tweeted External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas
Swarup.
The first Indian leader to visit California in more than
three decades, Modi is set to have meetings with Satya Nadella and
Sundar Pichai, Indian-American chief executives of Microsoft and Google
respectively.
He will also meet Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and electric carmaker Tesla's iconic CEO Elon Musk.
After the interaction with the Indian-American community, Modi will visit Tesla's Fremont plant later Saturday.
Here
more than the zero emissions cars that it makes, Modi would be
interested in its "Powerwall", a home battery charged by solar panels,
for India's clean energy initiative.
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.