‘India, US prepared ground, time for you to take advantage’: PM Modi to tech CEOs in US

At the event, Modi met prominent US tech CEOs including Apple’s (AAPL.O) Tim Cook, Google’s (GOOGL.O) Sundar Pichai and Microsoft’s (MSFT.O) Satya Nadella at Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.

“At the White House today, @POTUS @JoeBiden and I met top CEOs associated with tech and innovation to explore ways in which technology can fuel India-USA relations. Harnessing tech for societal betterment is a common goal that binds us, promising a brighter future for our people,” Modi tweeted after the meeting.

“AI is the future, be it Artificial Intelligence or America-India! Our nations are stronger together, our planet is better when we work in collaboration,” PM Modi said.

During the event, US President Joe Biden gifted PM Modi a special AI T-shirt with “The future is AI America and India” written on it.

PM Modi remarked that the country’s youth constitutes “the world’s biggest talent pool”. “India is the world’s youngest nation and it has the world’s biggest youth talent pool and skilled and professional force,” PM Modi was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. He added that whichever country joins India at this time, it is bound to benefit.

He said the basis of India’s success and its development’s biggest driving force is the aspiration of its people. In the last two and two and a half years, US companies have invested more than USD 16 billion in India, Modi added.

“We are keeping the fiscal deficit in check and continuously increasing our Capex. Our export is increasing, our Forex is increasing, and new records are being created in FDI,” Modi said.

After the meeting, Pichai told PTI that Google will set up its fintech operation centre at GIFT City in Gujarat, adding that Google will continue to invest in India through its USD 10 billion India Digitisation Fund. “I met the prime minister in December, and we continued our conversation. We shared that Google is investing USD 10 billion in the India digitisation fund and we are continuing to invest through that, including in companies working on artificial intelligence. As part of that, we have a 100-language initiative. We are bringing bot to more Indian languages very soon,” Pichai said.

The event was also addressed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US-India Strategic Partnership Forum President and CEO Mukesh Aghi, and Chairman Emeritus at Cisco and founder of JC2 Ventures John Chambers. Sam Altman of OpenAI, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams. Indian tech leaders including Anand Mahindra, chairman of Mahindra Group, and Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries were also present.