PTI
New York
Google CEO Sundar Pichai took to YouTube to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Silicon Valley. The India-born Google CEO Pichai said, "There is tremendous excitement among Googlers, Indians in US for PM Modi's visit."
"It is an honour to welcome PM Narendra Modi to Silicon Valley this weekend," he added. "I hope PM Modi's visit will energise people in the Silicon Valley."
"The bond between India & Silicon Valley has been strong. India has been an exporter of talent to tech companies," Google CEO said in his video address. "Products built by Indian graduates from IIT & other institutes have revolutionised the world," added Pichai.
Lauding Digital India initiative, Pichai said, "India is undergoing its own revolution. This will get people in rural areas online. Low cost of bandwidth, offline strategy, affordable phones will connect more people."
As PM Modi sets out win over America again with an outreach to the Indian-American community, three themes would animate his journey: Entrepreneurship and innovation, digital economy, and renewable energy.
Being the first Indian leader to visit California in more than three decades, PM Modi will have meetings with Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and electric carmaker Tesla's iconic CEO Elon Musk, among others.
Besides a town-hall style Q&A session at Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters, PM Modi will also be meeting Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai and Shantanu Narayen, the India-born CEOs of Microsoft, Google, and Adobe respectively.
Besides Pichai, PM Modi will also be meeting Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google's new holding company Alphabet, there.
At Googleplex, PM Modi will also witness the start of a 15-hour hackathon, with some 150 Indian programmers looking to produce software and applications relevant to India for Digital India and Skill India missions.
Hosted by the Indian IT industry trade body, National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), along with a clutch of startups in India and the US, the hackathon will have a simultaneous session at Tech Mahindra's Noida facility.
