PM arrives in Silicon Valley, scheduled to visit campuses of Tesla Motors, Facebook and Google
San Jose: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday arrived here in Silicon Valley with a focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, as he became the first Indian premier to visit the world's leading tech hub.
The trip to Silicon Valley forms part of Modi's visit to the US' west coast - the first by an Indian prime minister in more than three decades. At the hotel lobby, Indian Americans raising pro-Modi slogans warmly welcomed the Prime Minister.
"With Prime Minister Narendra Modi in office, we have the opportunity to reinvigorate US-India relations and bring our partnership to new heights," Congressman Ed Royce, Chairman of the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee said in a welcome statement as soon as Modi landed at San Jose Airport.
Royce and several other lawmakers would be attending Modi's address to the Indian community on Sunday night. "Prime Minister Modi's visit to Silicon Valley will undoubtedly bring the US and Indian tech sectors closer together, helping to deepen our strong and growing economic ties," Royce said.
Earlier, Modi left New York after hosting a crucial G-4 summit on UN Security Council reforms to begin another crucial part of his US visit with a packed agenda of meetings with corporate honchos in Silicon Valley.
During his two-day stay in Silicon Valley, he would begin and conclude his engagements with the Indian-American community, the last one being an address to a crowd of over 18,500 Indian-Americans at the SAP Centre in San Jose.
Sandwiched between the two community events would be Modi's visits to the campuses of Tesla Motors, Facebook and Google where he would hold meetings with the who's who of Silicon Valley ranging from Apple CEO Tim Cook to Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Sundar Pichai of Google, Shantanu Narayen of Adobe, and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.
The first-ever Indian prime minister to visit Silicon Valley after it became a global hub of innovation and entrepreneurship, Modi's first engagement after the community dinner would be to drive down to the Tesla campus.
"Namaste California! PM @narendramodi arrives in San Jose, for a tech-startup-energy-diaspora-oriented weekend," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.
"A warm Californian welcome. Members of the Indian diaspora greet PM @narendramodi at San Jose airport," he said
