Visit by PM Modi to Silicon Valley

Last weekend we saw our Indian prime minster Mr. Narendra Modi visit Silicon Valley in California. Mr. Modi henceforth, became the first Indian prime minister since 1982 to visit bay area. While the Indian community was excited and thrilled to see their beloved and world’s most dynamic leader currently, there was heightened interest among leading software companies like Facebook and Google for PM Modi’s visit to San Francisco bay area. His four day visit to the United States of America was culminated by a magnificent program comprising of traditional Indian dance performances and live music performances by Kailash Kher at the SAP center in San Jose in PM modi’s honor. PM Modi himself gave a splendid speech at the event in SAP center which left the large Indian gathering brimming with confidence of India’s bright future ahead under PM Modi’s leadership. Such was the enthusiasm in the SAP center arena, that people started shouting slogans of “Modi Modi” as if the PM is the leader of their local municipality. I had never seen such adulation and love for an Indian prime minister.

The prime minister’s vision of connecting the huge population of India via digital media and using e-commerce to drive the Indian economy forward & eradicate corruption is unique in itself. His vision of his utilizing digital social media to form allies with the world leaders to counter terrorism is again first of its kind. His vision has been very well received by the giants Apple, Facebook and Google in the software industry. India, with its billion plus population, has tremendous scope for improving and empowering the life of people using computer technology and e-commerce. The software giants of Silicon Valley realize this and hence want to jump on the bandwagon where PM Modi is making an effort to improve the lives of billions of people using computer technology and digitization.

PM Modi's speech at the SAP center was impressive. Not only was the speech given in proper Hindi, it was given without any fear or intimidation or concern towards the American representation at the gathering. I was surprised to find that California had many district governors of Indian origin. But even the strong American representation including the district governors, policemen, security did not curb the PM from giving the address in Hindi and urging the Indian diaspora to return and contribute towards 'their' India's success. From the times of sixties till about now, the constant movement of engineers from India to USA has been termed as "brain drain". But Mr. Modi, sees the "brain drain" to USA as "brain drain" in short term and "brain deposit" to USA for India to reap in long term. He held the sway of the large audience with his wit and humor as well.  

Indeed some of the steps taken by his government of involving information technology to move the billion plus populous of India have been impressive. The Modi government have taken many creditable reforms like providing bank accounts to 180 million people in India to get a better estimate of actual amount of money in economy, starting the digital identity using Aadhar/National Identification cards and providing digital lockers to people for uploading their identification & important documents to speed up various government processes like pension dis-pension. Not only digital identities fo people have been used to provide major government services to people in a time bound manner, the digital identities are also being used to tackle the much prevalent disease of corruption and red tape In India. This is indeed impressive utilization of computer technology and digitization for fostering a genral well being of the citizens of the country.

This was my first time that I attended the address of any prime minister of India live and it proved to be a memorial experience. The atmosphere inside the SAP Center was electric even before the prime minister's address started and the voice of the people reached a crescendo after Mr Modi completed his address. Mr. Modi is an extremely impressive leader who will take India forward much faster than any of his predecessors. India is the surely most shining 'letter in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa).