Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen; discuss ed-tech, start-ups and boosting innovation

Washington: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday met president and CEO of Adobe Shantanu Narayen and discussed the California-based software giant’s collaboration and future investment plans in India in sectors like artificial intelligence, health and education. The discussions between prime minister Modi and Narayen also focused on India’s flagship programme Digital India, and the use of emerging technologies in sectors like health, education and R&D. Modi and Narayen both emphasised on creating few centres of excellence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in India. “Mr Shantanu Narayen of @Adobe is a great friend of India. I sat down with him to discuss interesting ideas relating to ed-tech, supporting Indian start-ups and boosting innovation. Shantanu expressed keenness to take the joys of video and animation to every child in India,” Modi tweeted after the meeting. Prime Minister Modi and Narayen discussed Adobe’s ongoing collaboration and future investment plans in India. Discussions also focused on India’s flagship programme Digital India, and use of emerging technologies in sectors like health, education and R&D, the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement. Modi, who arrived here on Wednesday on an official visit to the US during which he will hold the first face-to-face meeting with President Joe Biden and his deputy Kamala Harris, held one-on-one meetings with CEOs of Qualcomm, Adobe, First Solar, General Atomics and Blackstone here. The prime minister in his meeting with the Indian-origin Adobe CEO said that bringing smart education to every child is important and that makes the technology very important, asserting that in the COVID-19 era, the ground for digital education has been laid. Narayen appreciated the efforts of India towards fighting COVID-19, particularly in the rapid vaccination, and expressed desire to bring video, animation to every child in India. “We’re very supportive of more emphasis and interest in education. It (investment) has been outstanding in India, it is actually our secret weapon. We started in India well before it was fashionable to have an Indian facility. But we also said right from the beginning that we want the best and we want to be able and actually do fundamental innovation so, we have multiple centres in India, we have in Noida, Bengaluru and Hyderabad and in addition to our sales offices all around the country. It has been a home run”, he told reporters.   Follow more LIVE updates on Prime Minister Narendra Modi at 76th session of the UN General Assembly