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US visit Day 4: PM Modi meets top CEOs, hails mother of Kamala Harris. 10 points
PM Narendra Modi US Visit: Narendra Modi met with US and Indian technology CEOs in Washington on the final day of his state visit.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with US President Joe Biden met top American and Indian technology chief executive officers or CEOs at the White House and later joined a luncheon hosted by Vice-President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the State Department in Washington on Friday, on the final day of his four-day visit.
Modi, who has appealed to global companies to "Make in India," will also address business leaders at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts between 7pm-9pm local time.
Top points on PM Modi's US visit-Day 4:
1. Biden and Modi met top American and Indian executives as the leaders look to increase cooperation on artificial intelligence, semiconductor production and space.
Also Read: PM Modi meets CEOs on final day of US visit: List of business leaders
2. The leaders are putting a spotlight on the “Innovation Handshake," a new initiative aimed at addressing regulatory hurdles that stand in the way of cooperation between the two countries and promoting job growth in emerging technologies.
3. “Our countries are taking innovation and cooperation to new levels,” Biden told the group. “We’re going to see more technological change … in the next 10 years than we’ve seen in the last 50 years.”
4. Modi said the coming together of talent and technology guarantees a brighter future. "The coming together of talent and technology guarantees a brighter future," he said.
5. Modi, during the event, met Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra, Reliance Industries chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani, Zerodha & True Beacon co-founder Nikhil Kamath and several others present.
5. Modi commended Biden for seeing “the possibility that India represents.” “This is definitely a guarantee for a bright future,” Modi added.
6. Speaking at the luncheon, Modi said India and the US are working with renewed trust in areas of new and emerging technologies and thanked the American leadership for giving him a grand welcome.
7. Modi lauded Indian-origin Harris and her parents, saying, “Kamala Harris’ mother Dr Shyamala Gopalan came to the US in 1958. At that time, the majority of people did not have phones. That’s why she used to write handwritten letters to her family. She never severed her ties with India… India was close to her despite being thousands of miles away.”
"Thank you so much for this grand welcome. The sweet melody of the India-US relationship is composed of our people-to-people relations," Modi added.
8. Harris said she and President Biden are grateful for Prime Minister Modi's commitment to strengthen US-India ties. "As I look around this room, I am struck by the extraordinary impact that the Indian Americans have had on our country in every facet of life," Harris said.
9. Harris also mentioned her mother Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer scientist who hailed from Chennai, during her address. She also spoke about her deep connection to India and her grandfather.
10. Secretary of State Blinken said that the US and India have become indispensable partners. "In the US, India is part of our daily lives. We laugh at the comedies of Mindy Kaling and dance to the beats of Diljit (Dosanjh) at Coachella," he said.
