From Sundar Pichai to Tim Cook, here’s what Silicon Valley’s gurus said about Modi and Digital India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the  first Indian leader to visit California in more than three decades, and he made the most of his visit to Silicon Valley by promoting his pet project ‘Digital India’ to the fullest. Modi addressed a gathering of Silicon Valley CEOs, visited Google and met newly-appointed CEO Sundar Pichai, participated in a Town Hall at the Facebook offices with Mark Zuckerberg, held meetings with Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Apple CEO Tim Cook and electric car manufacturer Tesla’s iconic CEO Elon Musk among others. Judging from the enthusiastic responses from the Silicon Valley gurus, Modi’s initiative to pitch Digital India to the digital heartland seemed to be off to a successful start. Here’s what the tech titans had to say about Modi and Digital India. Sundar Pichai [caption id=“attachment_2447404” align=“aligncenter” width=“825”] Sundar Pichai meets PM Modi. Reuters[/caption] Google’s newly-appointed Indian-origin CEO Sundar Pichai was excited to meet Modi even before he reached the West Coast as was evident from Pichai’s welcome video . He hosted the PM at Google and  was all praise for Digital India. “We are proud of what is happening in India and share the prime minister’s vision of Digital India. He has accelerated India’s effort to become next global hotbed of innovation and entrepreneurship. PM Modi understands that technology is the enabler that can drive massive change. He has accelerated India’s efforts in becoming the hotbed of innovation. What unites us all here is that technology will help us drive forward, especially India,” he said. Satya Nadella [caption id=“attachment_2447428” align=“aligncenter” width=“825”] Satya Nadella and PM Modi. Image Credit: Twitter @PMOIndia[/caption] Another Indian-origin tech guru, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, was equally complimentary in his praise for Modi. “Digital India will bring about solutions for the challenge of digital divide. Let’s empower people from Nanyuki to Srikakulam,” he said . Nadella added that Microsoft’s plan is to partner with the Indian government to bring in low-cost broadband connectivity to 500,000 villages in India. “We believe that low-cost broadband connectivity coupled with the scale of cloud computing intelligence that can be harnessed from data can help drive creativity, efficiency and productivity across governments and businesses of all sizes,” the first Indian-American CEO of Microsoft said. Tim Cook [caption id=“attachment_2447444” align=“aligncenter” width=“825”] Tim Cook with PM Modi. Image Credit: Twitter @NarendraModi[/caption] Modi’s meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook was about more than technology, as Cook invoked the company founder Steve Jobs and spoke about how India was the inspiration behind Apple. “My meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi was terrific, Cook said, “We have a unique tie with India. Our founder Steve Jobs went to India for inspiration.” Elon Musk [caption id=“attachment_2447454” align=“aligncenter” width=“825”] Narenda Modi with Elon Musk. PTI[/caption] Modi paid a visit to Tesla Motors’ headquaters and was driven around the Tesla factory, where he also posed for some photos.Discussions between Modi and Musk revolved mainly around bringing innovations and learnings from technologies like Tesla’s Powerwall to India.  “Prime Minister Modi and I talked about electricity generation and how there are ways to skip ahead with it as with cellphones,” Musk  said . Mark Zuckerberg [caption id=“attachment_2447492” align=“aligncenter” width=“825”] Modi with Zuckerberg at the Town Hall. Reuters[/caption] Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg conducted an Town Hall with Modi which, at one point, moved the PM to tears. Zuckerberg even changed his profile picture to one with a tricoloured tint as a mark of support for the Digital India campaign, and Modi followed suit. “India is personally very important to the history of our company. Early on before things were going well, we saw Steve Jobs,” he said. John Chambers [caption id=“attachment_2447464” align=“aligncenter” width=“825”] File photo of John Chambers. Getty Images[/caption] John Chambers, CEO of Cisco and next Chairman of US India Business Council (USIBC) was impressed with Modi’s vision and said, “If you can change India, you will change the world.” Shantanu Narayan [caption id=“attachment_2447472” align=“aligncenter” width=“825”] File photo of Shantanu Narayan. Getty Images[/caption] Shantanu Narayan, the Indian-American CEO of Adobe Systems, added to the chorus of praise for Digital India at PM Modi’s address. He believes that digital India initiative will “transform India into a digitally empowered knowledge economy”. Paul Jacobs [caption id=“attachment_2447476” align=“aligncenter” width=“825”] File photo of Paul Jacobs. Getty Images[/caption] Paul Jacobs, executive chairman of Qualcomm, is another supporter saying, “We are extremely excited and motivated by the Prime Minister’s Digital India initiative.”