PM Modi Visit to US Encourages Investments and Strengthens Technology Cooperation: Important Highlights

Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, met several IT giants during his visit to the United States of America. The visit has strengthened the India-US technology ties with various large companies promising investments into India. PM Modi and Joseph R Biden, President of USA participated in a India-US Hi-Tech Handshake event at the White House in Washington DC, which was attended by various notable CEOs from the tech world.

CEOs Who Attended the Hi-Tech Handshake Event with PM Modi

The thematic focus of the forum was on ‘AI for All’ and ‘Manufacturing for Mankind’. The occasion served as a platform for the leaders to thoroughly assess the growing technological collaboration between India and the USA. The discussions primarily centered around the significance and possibilities offered by the India-US Technology Partnership in promoting the adoption of an inclusive economy driven by artificial intelligence (AI), which could cater to the requirements of their respective citizens as well as the global community. The CEOs actively explored various avenues to capitalize on the existing connections between the two thriving tech ecosystems. The CEOs who attended the event with PM Modi are:

• Revathi Advaithi, CEO, Flex
• Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI
• Mark Douglas, President and CEO, FMC Corporation
• Lisa Su, CEO, AMD
• Will Marshall, CEO, Planet Labs
• Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft
• Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google
• Hemant Taneja, CEO and Managing Director, General Catalyst
• Thomas Tull, Founder, Tulco LLC
• Sunita Williams, NASA Astronaut
• Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra Group
• Mukesh Ambani, Chairman & MD, Reliance Industries
• Nikhil Kamath, Co-Founder, Zerodha & True Beacon
• Vrinda Kapoor, Co-Founder, 3rdiTech

“At the White House today, Joe Biden 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,” said Narendra Modi.

“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,” he added.

Investments and Plans Promised for India after PM Modi Visit

A number of companies have declared their intent to strengthen technology ties with India with various new investments and initiatives. Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google, discussed exploring further avenues of collaboration in the domains of artificial intelligence, fintech, cybersecurity products and services as well as mobile device manufacturing in India with PM Modi. Pichai announced a new fintech operation centre in GIFT city Gujarat.

“We are excited today that we are announcing the opening up of our global fintech operation centre in GIFT city Gujarat. We shared with the Prime Minister that Google is investing $10 billion in India digitisation fund. We are bringing Bard to more Indian languages very soon. Prime Minister’s vision for Digital India was way ahead of his time I now see as a blueprint other countries are looking to do,” said Pichai.

Andrew Jassy, CEO, Amazon, stated that the company was interested in creating jobs in India. “Very interested in helping create more jobs, helping digitise more small and medium size businesses and helping more Indian companies and products be exported all around the world. We have already invested 11 billion dollars, with an intention to invest another 15 billion dollars bringing total to 26 billion dollars,” he said.

Other Investments Announced

A few more highlights from the technology partnership are as follows:

• Micron has announced an investment of over $800 million toward a new $2.75 billion semiconductor assembly and test facility in India.
• Applied Materials will build a new Semiconductor Centre for Commercialization and Innovation to aid with the supply chain diversification.
• Lam Research has committed to training 60,000 Indian engineers through its “Semiverse Solution” to help accelerate India’s semiconductor workforce development goals.
• India and the United States have collaboratively established a Joint Indo-US Quantum Coordination Mechanism aimed at fostering combined research efforts in the fields of quantum computing, advanced computing, and artificial intelligence (AI). This mechanism serves as a facilitator for joint initiatives involving both the public and private sectors in both countries, enabling seamless cooperation and knowledge exchange.