Prime Minister Narendra Modi took America’s Silicon Valley by storm, striking an instant chord with the titans of the tech world and winning their enthusiastic endorsements for his ambitious “Digital India” push.
He fondly laid out his vision to transform India with his “Make in India”, “Digital India” and “Design in India” initiatives and said that his Government “attacked poverty by using power of networks and mobile phones”. As he stressed that “building I-ways was as important as building highways,” announcements of support flowed in thick and fast from the biggies — Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Qualcomm, Adobe and Apple.
In immediate practical terms, Microsoft announced plans to help the Modi Government take low-cost broadband to five lakh villages, while Google will help with WiFi internet access at 500 railway stations. And Qualcomm announced a Rs10 billion fund for India for start-ups.
It was a tumultuous welcome that the Prime Minister received from frenzied Indian-American supporters and prominent local officials as he landed in San Jose, California for a 36-hour whirlwind tour to confer with some of America’s top CEOs, visit Google and Tesla facilities and join a Facebook town hall session before delivering what promises to be yet another climactic address to the Indian Diaspora late on Sunday evening. The high-tech CEOs enthused by their interaction with Modi included Apple’s Tim Cook, Tesla’s Elon Musk, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Google’s Sunder Pichai, Qualcomm’s Paul Jacobs, Cisco’s John Chambers and Adobe’s Shantanu Narayan.
Speaking at the Digital India Dinner Modi termed Digital India “an enterprise for India’s transformation on a scale that is, perhaps, unmatched in human history”, asserting, “We will transform governance, making it more transparent, accountable, accessible and participative.”
Modi said Digital India was born out of conviction that it was possible to rapidly transform the lives of people on the margins and touch the lives of the weakest, farthest and the poorest citizen of India as also change the way our nation will live and work.
“When you think of the exponential speed and scale of expansion of social media or a service, you have to believe that it is equally possible to rapidly transform the lives of those who have long stood on the margins of hope,” Modi said.
“For nothing else will do in a country with 800 million youth under the age of 35 years, impatient for change and eager to achieve it,” said the Prime Minister.
Modi said, “Since my Government came to office we attacked poverty by using power of networks and mobile phones to launch a new era of empowerment.”
“I see technology as a means to empower and as a tool that bridges the distance between hope and opportunity,” he said, adding: “In this digital age, we have an opportunity to transform lives of people in ways that was hard to imagine just a couple of decades ago.”
And for Silicon Valley’s tech giants, Digital India can be a vast cyber world of opportunities, he said as he outlined his Government’s all-out push to advance the digital economy.
Remarking that building I-ways are as important as building highways, Modi talked about the launch of an aggressive expansion of the National Optical Fibre Network that will take broadband to India’s 600,000 villages and connect all schools and colleges.
Also Common Service Centres will be set up in villages and towns as also use information technology to build smart cities. “We want to turn our villages into smart economic hubs and connect our farmers
better to markets and makes them less vulnerable to the whims of weather,” he said.
“The task is huge; the challenges are many. But, we also know that we will not reach new destinations without taking new roads,” Modi said, adding: “Much of India that we dream of is yet to be built. So, we have the opportunity to shape its path now.”
As affordability of products and services will be critical to the success of the mission, Modi held out assurances to promote the manufacture of quality and affordable products.
“We will promote manufacture of quality and affordable products in India. That is part of our vision of Make in India, Digital India and Design in India,” he said.
From E-governance to bring about efficiency and economy, it is now time to focus on M-governance or mobile governance, he said, noting: “That is the way to go in a country with one billion cell phones and use of smart phones growing at high double digit rates…It puts governance within everyone’s reach.”
“Since my Government came to office last year, we have attacked poverty by using the power of networks and mobile phones to launch a new era of empowerment and inclusion: 180 million new bank accounts in a few months; direct transfer of benefits to the poor; funds for the unbanked; insurance within the reach of the poorest; and, pension for the sunset years for all,” he said.
Modi also said that India and the US, the world’s two largest democracies, have the responsibility to shape the future of peace, stability and prosperity in Asia Pacific region which would determine the course of this century.
Observing that India and the US are located at the two ends of the Asia Pacific region, the Prime Minister said, “We have the responsibility to shape a future of peace, stability and prosperity in this region.”
“Indians and Americans have worked together to shape the knowledge economy. They have made us aware of the vast potential of technology,” Modi said.
“From large corporate to young professionals in this great centre of innovation, each can be part of the Digital India story. The sustainable development of one-sixth of humanity will be a major force of good for our world and our planet,” he said.
“Today, we speak of India-US partnership as a defining partnership of this century. It hinges on two major reasons. Both converge here in California,” he said.
As the world’s second most popular leader on social media after President Barack Obama, with over 15 million Twitter followers and more than 30 million “likes” on Facebook, Modi showered praise on the social media networks, calling them “the new neighbourhoods of our new world”.
“If Facebook were a country, it would be the third-most populous one and the most connected,” he said, adding: “Twitter has turned everyone into a reporter.” As for Google, he commented it has “made teachers less awe-inspiring and grandparents idle”.
In lines that instantly appealed to the tech-savvy audience, Modi said: “The status that now matters is not whether you are awake or asleep, but whether you are online or offline. The most fundamental debate for our youth is the choice between Android, iOS or Windows.”
“From computing to communication, entertainment to education, from printing documents to printing products, and, now to internet of things, it’s been a long journey in a short time. From cleaner energy to better healthcare and safer transport, everything is converging around the work you do,” he told the denizens of the tech world.
Holding forth on the incredible tech innovations, he said a mother in a distant hill village of India has a better chance to save her new born infant now and a child in a remote village has better access to education.
“An initiative by a father in Haryana for ‘Selfie with daughter’ to draw attention to the girl child became an international movement,” he remarked, telling his audience: “All this is because of the work you people are doing.”
He said since his Government came to office last year, it has attacked poverty by using the power of networks and mobile phones to launch a new era of empowerment and inclusion that has included creating 180 million new bank accounts and providing for direct transfer of benefits to the poor.
“By using Space technology and internet, we have been able to identify in the last few months 170 applications that will make governance better and development faster,” he said.
Technology is forcing governments to deal with massive volume of data and generate responses, not in 24 hours but in 24 minutes, Modi said and disclosed how his newly-launched Narendra Modi Mobile App was helping him stay in close touch with people, learning a great deal from their suggestions and complaints.
Modi speak
* If Facebook were a country, it would be the third most populous one and the most connected
* Google today has made teachers less
awe-inspiring and grandparents more idle
* Twitter has turned everyone into a reporter
* The traffic lights that need to work the best are on CISCO routers
* The status that now matters is not whether you are awake or asleep, but whether you are online or offline
* A small farmer is more confident about his land holding and getting better market price. A fisherman on the sea has a better catch. And, a young professional in San Francisco can Skype daily to comfort her sick grandmother in India
* Farmers in Maharashtra have created a Whatsapp group to share information on farming practices
* In this digital age, we have an opportunity to transform lives of people in ways that was
hard to imagine just a couple of decades ago