Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s courtship with the US may take some more time to produce results, but he is definitely all set to get some mileage there. Modi is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF) at The Penn Museum in Philadelphia via live videoconference.

The 17th WIEF conference, Changing Seas: Steering for Growth, will be held on March 23. WIFE is an annual student-run India-centric conference hosted by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Modi will talk on government and policy and the ‘Gujarat model of development’.

Earlier, even after being denied a visa in 2005, Modi addressed the Gujarati community in the US via videoconference. Now, increasingly being seen as BJP’s potential PM candidate, Modi addressed the students of Delhi’s Shri Ram College of Commerce on February 7.

The UK, too, had denied a diplomatic visa to Modi, forcing him to cancel his London visit after the 2002 riots in which three British nationals were also killed. But during the electioneering in Gujarat earlier this year, it changed its policy.

A group of students and faculty at the University of Pennsylvania have started a campaign to oppose Modi’s talk. The group has so far received more than 150 signatures.