Narendra Modi to check-in at Facebook HQ; meet big guns of Silicon Valley

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to San Francisco after the 70th annual session of UN General Assembly in New York will make him the fourth Indian premier to visit the United States’ West Coast. Preparations for multiple gatherings and addresses are underway, including one at the SAP Center in San Jose, California on September 27. Modi is expected to address an audience of more than 20,000 Indian Americans there. [caption id=“attachment_2430192” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PM Narendra Modi. Reuters[/caption] Not just the Indian diaspora in the Bay Area, Modi is expected to mingle with the who’s who of the Silicon Valley in efforts to push the government’s pet initiatives including ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ campaigns. Heading the list is Apple CEO Tim Cook, adding hope to speculations that Apple is looking to invest in manufacturing capacities in India. Foxconn, the contract electronics manufacturer and a key supplier to Apple, has already signed a pact with Maharashtra to invest $5 billion over five years on a new electronics manufacturing facility. Also on the agenga is a chat with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg has invited Modi at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California on September 27 for a live online Q&A session that will be hosted on Facebook. This wil be their second meeting after they met in October when Zuckerberg was in Delhi. In addition to this, Modi will also be meeting up with Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Tesla Motor’s Elon Musk. Also, reports the Times of India, J P Morgan will organize an exclusive meet for 15 CEOs from the financial sector. Time Inc will host a dinner with 100 CEOs specializing in infrastructure and manufacturing. While Make in India and Digital India will be in focus throughout his visit, Modi will also focus on renewable energy. He will hold a roundtable on the subject at Stanford University and this will be a key topic of discussion in his conversation with US President Barack Obama in New York on September 28.