New York:
Sundar Pichai, CEO of technology giant Google, today said India has long been an exporter of talent to technology companies, but is now undergoing its own revolution that will have great benefits for the 1.2 billion people in the country.
Welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Silicon Valley, the India-born CEO said there is tremendous excitement for his visit among all Googlers and the entire Indian community.
“The bond between India and the Silicon Valley is strong.
India has long been an exporter of talent to tech companies. The products built by Indian graduates from IIT and other institutions have helped revolutionise the world. But it is India that's now undergoing its own revolution,” he said in a YouTube video.
He saw great benefits for everyone in the country as “many people will come online for the first time, especially those in rural areas and Indic language speakers”.
It will also help girls learn new skills and have successful careers, power education of the next generation and help businesses of all sizes to find new customers, Pichai said.
“We’re looking forward to your remarks at the SAP Centre in San Jose, and also when you come to Google... We hope your visit will energise people in the Valley, excite Indians all across the country, and renew and strengthen our partnership,” he said.
During his US visit, Modi is also scheduled to meet Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and address a townhall question and answer session on September 27 at the company’s headquarters in California. He is expected to meet Apple CEO Tim Cook and electric carmaker Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk, among others.
Modi is addressing the India-US Startup Konnect and share his vision on ‘Start up India, Stand up India’ to be hosted by Indian IT industry body Nasscom, TiE Silicon Valley, and IIM Ahmedabad’s CIIE India.
In the next few years, about 50 million women and 20 million small businesses are expected to get online for the first time, he said.
“Prime Minister Modi's Digital India vision is central to this revolution. It focuses on connecting the 1.2 billion people in India. It has received tremendous support in India and in Silicon Valley,” Pichai said.
Highlighting the role played by Google, Pichai said the company as well as many others around the world are passionate about playing their part.
“Some of our initiatives include making our products work on low bandwidth and even offline, making the Web accessible in Indic language, providing low-cost Chromebooks in Indian schools, investing in core infrastructure and affordable smartphone with Android One,” he said.
Highlighting the importance of renewal energy to India, Indian Ambassador to the United States Arun Singh has said that India wants to grow at 8-10 per cent and to the extent possible, the nation would like to do it on the basis of renewal energy.
"The interaction that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have, there would be thought leaders, there would be people from industry, from start ups and from venture capital looking at how to deal with renewal energy and use it to meet India's needs and requirements," he told the media here.
He said starts-ups would be another very important event because one of the very important things that had impact in Silicon Valley was entrepreneurship, innovation and start ups.
"There is a lot of strength in India in start-ups and innovation space, and at that event certain members of start-ups from India are coming to partner with Silican valley companies to discuss with them their experiencand to see how we can build an eco system of innovation partnershipbetweeb India and Silicon Valley, which will be a win-win situation for both," added Singh.
Modi will have a packed agenda for the next two days in the city and then in California from September 26-27.
The Prime Minister was received at the airport by Indian Ambassador Arun K Singh, India's envoy to the UN Asoke Mukerji, Consul General Dnyaneshwar Mulay and their spouses.
Modi will return to New York on September 28 for a bilateral meeting with PresidentBarack Obama as well as to attend a high-level peacekeeping summit at the United Nations.
On Friday, he will address global heads of state at the Sustainable Development Summit hosted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon when the new and ambitious post-2015 development agenda will be adopted.
India will also host the G-4 summit here on September 26, before Modi leaves for the West Coast for a packed two-day trip during when he will have meetings with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google's new CEO Sundar Pichai. He will also attend a grand community reception in San Jose.
Modi will also meet President Barack Obama on September 28, his third summit meeting with the President in about a year.
Modi is expected to focus on giving a further push to early and urgent reform of the Security Council and to send an "unambiguous message" of "zero tolerance against terrorism".
In a letter to the UN Secretary General in July, Modi had said that that the UN must be made more effective for dealing with new security challenges as "we are now living in an era when non-state military actors are a major factor." "We must use this historic year to jointly send an unambiguous message of zero tolerance against terrorism. An important step in this direction would be adopting the Comprehensive Convention against International Terrorism at the United Nations this year," Modi had written in the letter.
India's Permanent Representative to the UN Asoke Mukerji has said that the Prime Minister's speech at the Sustainable Development summit will focus on "Agenda 2030" since he "has given a lot of attention to the substance of the development agenda."
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