by Allanah Leahy – EM TV World News
Tech was on the agenda last week, with Chinese and Indian leaders gracing the US to meet with some of the world’s biggest tech players.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with tech leaders in California’s Silicon Valley, seeking innovation and investment to continue fuelling development across India’s population of over a billion.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described his mother’s plight in connecting with the rest of the world through television, in an emotional interview with Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.
But the PM spoke of a new “Digital India”, developing digital literacy and new opportunities.
“The task is huge, the challenges are many.
“But, we also know that we will not reach new destinations without taking new roads,” he said, addressing over 350 business leaders on Saturday.
“Our relationship is also defined by the power of youth, technology and innovation.
“These can ignite a partnership that will advance and sustain prosperity in our two countries.
“Even more, in this digital age we can draw on the strength of our values and partnership to shape a better and more sustainable future for the world,” he said.
PM Modi also met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, to discuss renewable-energy transport such as electric and solar powered vehicles.
Further meetings ensued with the local Indian community in the area, which included Indian born Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Google’s next CEO, Sundar Pichai. Both agreed with the importance of wider and cheaper connectivity in driving development.
“We believe low-cost broadband connectivity coupled with the scale of the cloud connectivity and the intelligence that can be harnessed from data can help drive creativity, efficiency and productivity across governments and businesses of all sizes.
“This, in turn, will drive more affordable products, services and access to opportunity for all of India,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
Prime Minister Modi aims to turn the country’s current $8 trillion economy into 20 trillion, describing India as a “heaven” for investors.
“Roughly 10 billion rupees or $150 million fund to fuel innovation and foster promising Indian startups, that money will be invested in Indian startups that are contributing in mobile and internet of everything ecosystem.
“We are very excited about the prospects there, we have actually been investing in India since 2007 and have over 20 portfolio companies so far and we expect that to grow very rapidly going forward,” said Paul E Jacobs, Qualcomm’s executive chairman.
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