New Delhi:
US President Donald Trump may attend “Howdy Modi!” mega diaspora event in Houston to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 60 prominent US lawmakers, including first American Hindu Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi are also likely to attend the event. The event is expected to be gathering of 50,000 people.
PM Modi will also meet CEOs and top executives of US energy companies in Houston.
New Delhi with Washington is exploring possibility of President Trump attending both these events. However, reports suggest that there are more possibilities that Trump will attend the energy CEOs roundtable with Modi. This can be speculated since India has started importing energy from the US.
PM Modi is likely to leave for Houston on September 21 where from he will travel to New York for the UN General Assembly session.
The Houston event will be Modi’s third major address to the Indian-American community after he became the prime minister in 2014 and the first after his re-election in May. The previous two were at the Madison Square Garden in New York in 2014 and the Silicon Valley in 2016. Both the events were attended by more than 20,000 people.
Earlier, Jiten Agrawal, CEO of Expedien, an IT services firm had said, “Houston diaspora is perhaps the most influential and well connected in the US political map. Perhaps this is why Houston was chosen by the Indian government,” he said on asked why Houston was chosen as the destination for the event.
He said that Houston was a primary choice due to the fact that trade between Texas and India has been increasing multifold. Houston being the energy capital of the world, is an excellent partner for India’s growth.
“India is going to be a USD 5 trillion economy in the next few years and need significant collaboration in healthcare and Texas medical centre being one of the best in country ushers in another partnership between India and Texas on medical research and new treatments,” he said.
