Even old-timers like Modi are fast realising the importance of social media outlets...
Standing side-by-side with Mark Zuckerberg, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a rock star appearance at Facebook on Sunday, advocating for the political power of social media.
An invitation-only audience jumped to its feet, cheering and snapping photos as Modi strode into a sun-splashed courtyard with Zuckerberg - sporting a jacket and tie for the occasion, in a sartorial about-face for the typically casual campus.
"To leaders all over the world; you are not going to gain by running away from social media," said the tech-savvy premier during a town hall-style question and answer session.
"The strength of social media today is that it can tell governments where they are going wrong and give them an opportunity to do a course correction."
"You will gain from joining it. You need real time information," said the 65-year-old Modi, who has 30 million fans on Facebook and tweets multiple times a day.
Modi used the hour-long session to promote his Digital India drive and promote the country as a place worthy of tourists, investments, and entrepreneurs with visions of disruptive technology start-ups.
But he also shared some candid moments with Zuckerberg, who told of finding inspiration to persevere with Facebook during a journey to India while Modi himself choked up while speaking of his mother.
Zuckerberg pointed out his parents in the audience before asking Modi about his own mother. Modi's mother is more than 90 years old, and his father is no longer living.
The prime minister recounted coming from a poor family, selling tea at a rail station as a boy.
"It is hard to imagine that a tea seller has actually become the leader of the world's biggest democracy," Modi said.
"When we were small, what we used to do to get by," he continued, pausing at times to recompose himself.
"We used to go to neighbors houses, clean dishes, fill water, do hard chores. You can imagine what a mother had to do to raise her children."
Zuckerberg, meanwhile, opened the chat by telling of a time, about a decade ago, when Facebook was going through a "rough patch" and there were thoughts of selling the startup.
He said he visited one of his mentors, late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who told him to travel to a certain temple in India.
"I went, and travelled for almost a month," Zuckerberg recounted. "Seeing the people and how people connected, reinforced what we were doing and is something I've always remembered."
Points touched on by Modi during the exchange included the hope of connecting all of India's villages to the Internet with fiber optic cable, and the mighty challenge of attaining equality for women in India.
"If we want to achieve our economic goals, we cannot do that if we imprison 50 percent of our population inside their houses," he said in answer to a question.
"We have to achieve one thing; to bring women into decision making," said Modi, who playfully noted that while most religions portray deities as male, India has no shortage of goddesses.
Modi's stop at Facebook was part of a tour of Silicon Valley, ahead of the UN General Assembly where he will meet US President Barack Obama on Monday.
Late Sunday, he was later to star at an event attended by some 18,000 people in a convention center in the city of San Jose in Silicon Valley.
It is the first time since 1982 that a prime minister of India has visited the West Coast of the United States.
Modi also visited Google's main campus in nearby Mountain View, where he and Google announced a collaboration to provide wireless Internet at railway stations in India, with a goal of connecting 500 by the end of next year.
"Just like I did years ago, thousands of young Indians walk through Chennai Central every day, eager to learn, to explore and to seek opportunity," India-born Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said in a blog post.
"It's my hope that this Wi-Fi project will make all these things a little easier."
Nearly one billion people in India don't have access to the Internet, according to Pichai.
==
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promoted his Digital India
Initiative during his Silicon Valley visit to world's technology giants
and tried to convince them to bring in more investment, connectivity and
jobs to India.
Addressing a 18,500-strong crowd at the final event of his Silicon Valley tour at sports arena in San Jose, California, Modi claimed that "the world has started to believe that the twenty-first century belongs to India."
India has moved from scriptures to satellites, said Modi, attributing the change to the commitment, strength and pledge of the 125 crore people of the country.
Technology executives, eager to expand into India with its 1.3-billion population, embraced Modi's initiative, with CEOs from Facebook Inc, Google Inc and Tesla Motors all hosting him at their headquarters. Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook met with Modi at his hotel. Indian-born CEOs Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai of Microsoft Corp and Google were among those who moderated a panel before Modi addressed a 350-member business leaders' dinner.
"We must bridge the digital divide and promote digital literacy in the same way that we seek to ensure general literacy," Modi said.
Google announced plans to make Internet accessible to one crore passengers at 100 busiest railway stations in India by the end of next year and will later expand it to 300 other stations, making it one of the largest public Wi-Fi projects in the world.
"I'm very proud to announce that it's the train stations of India that are going to help get millions of people online. In the past year, 100 million people in India started using the Internet for the first time," Google's India-born CEO Sunder Pichai said in a blog post on Sunday after his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"That's why, today, on the occasion of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to our US headquarters, and in line with his Digital India initiative, we announced a new project to provide high-speed public Wi-Fi in 400 train stations across India," he said.
"This will rank it as the largest public Wi-Fi project in India, and among the largest in the world, by number of potential users," he said.
Google also released a map of India with public Wi-Fi railway stations.
At Facebook headquarters, standing side-by-side with Mark Zuckerberg, Modi made a rock star appearance, advocating for the political power of social media.
"To leaders all over the world; you are not going to gain by running away from social media," said the tech-savvy premier during a town hall-style question and answer session.
"The strength of social media today is that it can tell governments where they are going wrong and give them an opportunity to do a course correction."
"You will gain from joining it. You need real time information," said the 65-year-old Modi, who has 30 million fans on Facebook and tweets multiple times a day.
Facebook has already launched an effort to connect with lower-income Indians through Zuckerberg's Internet.org project, which promotes Internet use in developing countries by offering free access to a package of web apps on mobile phones.
At a meeting with the startup community, Modi said the mega corporations of today were startups of yesterday, and compared his new government in New Delhi as a startup that had its own share on bumps on the road.
Modi said he understands their challenges, but also the wonderful feeling of creating something new.
"The course of human history and progress has been shaped by imagination, inspiration, invention and innovation. I often say, if there's a strong wind blowing, some might want to shut the window. Others will want to put up a windmill or launch their sails on the seas.
Modi said he sees Startups, technology and innovation as exciting and effective instruments for India's transformation, and for creating jobs for our youth.
The Indian Prime Minsiter started his Silicon Valley tour on Saturday with a visit to "green" car maker Tesla Motors Inc.
Standing side-by-side with Mark Zuckerberg, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a rock star appearance at Facebook on Sunday, advocating for the political power of social media.
An invitation-only audience jumped to its feet, cheering and snapping photos as Modi strode into a sun-splashed courtyard with Zuckerberg - sporting a jacket and tie for the occasion, in a sartorial about-face for the typically casual campus.
"To leaders all over the world; you are not going to gain by running away from social media," said the tech-savvy premier during a town hall-style question and answer session.
"The strength of social media today is that it can tell governments where they are going wrong and give them an opportunity to do a course correction."
"You will gain from joining it. You need real time information," said the 65-year-old Modi, who has 30 million fans on Facebook and tweets multiple times a day.
Modi used the hour-long session to promote his Digital India drive and promote the country as a place worthy of tourists, investments, and entrepreneurs with visions of disruptive technology start-ups.
But he also shared some candid moments with Zuckerberg, who told of finding inspiration to persevere with Facebook during a journey to India while Modi himself choked up while speaking of his mother.
Zuckerberg pointed out his parents in the audience before asking Modi about his own mother. Modi's mother is more than 90 years old, and his father is no longer living.
The prime minister recounted coming from a poor family, selling tea at a rail station as a boy.
"It is hard to imagine that a tea seller has actually become the leader of the world's biggest democracy," Modi said.
"When we were small, what we used to do to get by," he continued, pausing at times to recompose himself.
"We used to go to neighbors houses, clean dishes, fill water, do hard chores. You can imagine what a mother had to do to raise her children."
Zuckerberg, meanwhile, opened the chat by telling of a time, about a decade ago, when Facebook was going through a "rough patch" and there were thoughts of selling the startup.
He said he visited one of his mentors, late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who told him to travel to a certain temple in India.
"I went, and travelled for almost a month," Zuckerberg recounted. "Seeing the people and how people connected, reinforced what we were doing and is something I've always remembered."
Points touched on by Modi during the exchange included the hope of connecting all of India's villages to the Internet with fiber optic cable, and the mighty challenge of attaining equality for women in India.
"If we want to achieve our economic goals, we cannot do that if we imprison 50 percent of our population inside their houses," he said in answer to a question.
"We have to achieve one thing; to bring women into decision making," said Modi, who playfully noted that while most religions portray deities as male, India has no shortage of goddesses.
Modi's stop at Facebook was part of a tour of Silicon Valley, ahead of the UN General Assembly where he will meet US President Barack Obama on Monday.
Late Sunday, he was later to star at an event attended by some 18,000 people in a convention center in the city of San Jose in Silicon Valley.
It is the first time since 1982 that a prime minister of India has visited the West Coast of the United States.
Modi also visited Google's main campus in nearby Mountain View, where he and Google announced a collaboration to provide wireless Internet at railway stations in India, with a goal of connecting 500 by the end of next year.
"Just like I did years ago, thousands of young Indians walk through Chennai Central every day, eager to learn, to explore and to seek opportunity," India-born Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said in a blog post.
"It's my hope that this Wi-Fi project will make all these things a little easier."
Nearly one billion people in India don't have access to the Internet, according to Pichai.
==
Addressing a 18,500-strong crowd at the final event of his Silicon Valley tour at sports arena in San Jose, California, Modi claimed that "the world has started to believe that the twenty-first century belongs to India."
India has moved from scriptures to satellites, said Modi, attributing the change to the commitment, strength and pledge of the 125 crore people of the country.
Technology executives, eager to expand into India with its 1.3-billion population, embraced Modi's initiative, with CEOs from Facebook Inc, Google Inc and Tesla Motors all hosting him at their headquarters. Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook met with Modi at his hotel. Indian-born CEOs Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai of Microsoft Corp and Google were among those who moderated a panel before Modi addressed a 350-member business leaders' dinner.
"We must bridge the digital divide and promote digital literacy in the same way that we seek to ensure general literacy," Modi said.
Google announced plans to make Internet accessible to one crore passengers at 100 busiest railway stations in India by the end of next year and will later expand it to 300 other stations, making it one of the largest public Wi-Fi projects in the world.
"I'm very proud to announce that it's the train stations of India that are going to help get millions of people online. In the past year, 100 million people in India started using the Internet for the first time," Google's India-born CEO Sunder Pichai said in a blog post on Sunday after his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"That's why, today, on the occasion of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to our US headquarters, and in line with his Digital India initiative, we announced a new project to provide high-speed public Wi-Fi in 400 train stations across India," he said.
"This will rank it as the largest public Wi-Fi project in India, and among the largest in the world, by number of potential users," he said.
Google also released a map of India with public Wi-Fi railway stations.
At Facebook headquarters, standing side-by-side with Mark Zuckerberg, Modi made a rock star appearance, advocating for the political power of social media.
"To leaders all over the world; you are not going to gain by running away from social media," said the tech-savvy premier during a town hall-style question and answer session.
"The strength of social media today is that it can tell governments where they are going wrong and give them an opportunity to do a course correction."
"You will gain from joining it. You need real time information," said the 65-year-old Modi, who has 30 million fans on Facebook and tweets multiple times a day.
Facebook has already launched an effort to connect with lower-income Indians through Zuckerberg's Internet.org project, which promotes Internet use in developing countries by offering free access to a package of web apps on mobile phones.
At a meeting with the startup community, Modi said the mega corporations of today were startups of yesterday, and compared his new government in New Delhi as a startup that had its own share on bumps on the road.
Modi said he understands their challenges, but also the wonderful feeling of creating something new.
"The course of human history and progress has been shaped by imagination, inspiration, invention and innovation. I often say, if there's a strong wind blowing, some might want to shut the window. Others will want to put up a windmill or launch their sails on the seas.
Modi said he sees Startups, technology and innovation as exciting and effective instruments for India's transformation, and for creating jobs for our youth.
The Indian Prime Minsiter started his Silicon Valley tour on Saturday with a visit to "green" car maker Tesla Motors Inc.
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