Prime Minister Narendra Modi late on Tuesday met eminent personalities from various walks of life, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, in New York.
Modi tweeted after his interaction with Musk “Great meeting you today @elonmusk! We had multifaceted conversations on issues ranging from energy to spirituality.”
To this, Musk replied, “It was an honour to meet again.”
Asked if Tesla will enter the Indian market, Musk said he is planning to visit the country next year. “I am confident that Tesla will be in India and will do so as soon as humanly possible,” he said.
“Modi met Elon Musk, tech pioneer, business magnate and CEO of Tesla Inc & SpaceX; owner, CTO and chairman of Twitter; founder of the Boring Company and X-corp; co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI, today, in New York.
“The Prime Minister appreciated Musk’s efforts at making technology accessible and affordable in various sectors. Prime Minister invited Musk to explore opportunities in India for investments in electric mobility and the rapidly expanding commercial space sector,” an official press statement said.
Modi also held discussions on wide ranging issues with over two dozen thought leaders from various walks of life, including Nobel laureates, economists, artists, scientists, scholars, entrepreneurs, academicians and health sector experts.
Besides Musk, they included astrophysicist and author Neil deGrasse Tyson, Nobel laureate economist Paul Romer, author Nicholas Nassim Taleb and investor Ray Dalio.
Prime Minister Modi met one-on-one with some of them while others met him in groups.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the Prime Minister met experts from several leading US think-tanks.
They discussed a range of developmental and geo-political issues. Modi invited them to enhance their presence in India as it embarks on its transformation during the Amritkaal.
The various think-tank experts who participated in the interaction included Michael Froman, president-designate and distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), New York, Daniel Russel, vice president for International Security and Diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute, Dr Max Abrahms, associate professor of political science at Northeastern University, Jeff M Smith, director, Asian Studies Center, The Heritage Foundation, Elbridge Colby, co-founder of “The Marathon Initiative”, Guru Sowle, founder-member, director (Indo-US Affairs) and Indus International Research Foundation.
Musk told reporters after meeting Modi that “Twitter, the social media giant he owns, did not have a choice but to follow the local Government. Or it will get shut down”. He was responding to allegations by the company’s former owner and CEO Jack Dorsey that the Indian Government threatened to shut down Twitter.
“The best we can do is to follow the laws in any given country,” he said, adding that it is impossible for them to do more than that. “There are different rules and regulations for different forms of Governments, and we will do our best to provide the freest speech that is possible under the law”, Musk said.
Asked if Tesla will enter the Indian market, Musk said he is planning to visit the country next year. “I am confident that Tesla will be in India and will do so as soon as humanly possible,” he said.
“I would like to thank the Prime Minister for his support and hopefully we will be able to announce something in the not so distant future,” Musk said.
“We do not want to jump the gun on an announcement but I think it is quite likely that it will be a significant investment in our relationship with India,” the Tesla CEO said.
In a separate video statement, Musk also lauded Modi, saying he “really cares about India because he is pursuing us to make significant investments in India”. “I am a fan of Modi,” he said.
India is great for solar energy investment, Musk added, describing his talks with the Prime Minister as excellent.
Taleb after meeting Modi said, “I commended India for its response to Covid and how India has very efficiently dealt with it. Discussed risk taking and anti-fragility with the Prime Minister.”
“Professor @nntaleb has interesting perspectives on many issues and I had the opportunity to hear them on some of those subjects. He was greatly interested in India’s development strides. I emphasised on how we are nurturing a spirit of enterprise and risk taking among our youth,” Modi tweeted.
Dalio said, “Modi is a man whose time has come when India’s time has come”.
“Potential of India is enormous and you have now have a reformer who has the ability to transform. India and Prime Minister Modi are at a juncture in which lot of opportunities will be created,” he said.
Modi tweeted, “Met my friend, the distinguished author and investor @RayDalio. Urged him to deepen investments in India and also talked about the reform trajectory of our government.”
In a video statement, Tyson also praised Modi, saying the sky is not the limit for him and describing the prime minister as “scientifically thoughtful”.
“Priorities might be out of balance for many world leaders but Prime Minister Modi cares for many things, including solutions. I am not alone when I say that the potential what India can accomplish knows no limit,” the astrophysicist said.
The Prime Minister tweeted,” Talked space, science and related issues with @neiltyson. Highlighted steps India is taking to reform the space sector and draw more youngsters towards science as well as innovation.”
On Modi’s meeting with Romer, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted, “A stimulating exchange of views between PM @narendramodi and eminent economist and Nobel laureate Prof @paulmromer.”
“Discussions touched upon India’s digital journey, including the use of Aadhar and innovative tools like Digilocker. Talks also covered various initiatives being undertaken by India for urban development,” he tweeted.
The Prime Minister on Twitter said, “Glad to have met noted economist and Nobel Laureate, Professor @paulmromer. We had extensive conversations on leveraging technology to improve lives. We also talked about how to make our cities more sustainable and people friendly.”
On his meeting with author Robert AF Thurman, Modi tweeted, “The interaction with @BobThurman was outstanding. I admire his passion towards research and scholarship on aspects relating to Buddhism. I highlighted India’s Buddhist heritage and how Buddhism can help overcome many challenges our world faces.”