Modi hails India as a ‘land of opportunities’ during high-profile US visit

The Indian prime minister attended the Quad leaders’ meeting, met CEOs of leading tech firms and addressed the Summit of the Future at the UN General Assembly.

• Eastern Eye
• 26 September, 2024

By: Eastern Eye

PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi described India as a “land of opportunities” on a three-day visit to the US that concluded on Monday (23).

On a whirlwind trip, Modi attended the Quad Leaders’ meeting and a major Indian community event; he also met CEOs of leading tech firms and addressed the Summit of the Future at the UN General Assembly.

Last Saturday (21), Modi was at a packed Nassau Veterans Coliseum on Long Island in New York, in front of 15,000 Indian Americans. Applauding the role of the community in strengthening the relationship between India and the US, he called them India’s brand ambassadors.

“For the world, AI stands for artificial intelligence. But I believe AI also represents the America-India spirit,” Modi said.

While the majority of attendees came from the New York and New Jersey area, Indian Americans also came in from 40 states, organisers said.

Sixty charter buses were used to ferry those who attended.

Referring to a Sanskrit shloka that “it is those who make sacrifices reap benefits”, the prime minister said wherever the Indian diaspora lives, they contribute to the societal and national development in every field.

In June, Modi won a third consecutive term in a much tighter general election than anticipated in which his Bharatiya Janata party lost its parliamentary majority.

The 74-year-old said he is pursuing a “three-fold sense of responsibility” in this third term. “After going through this tough election process, this long election system, something unprecedented happened in India (this year). What happened… ‘Abki baar Modi sarkaar’,” Modi said amid chants of ‘Modi-Modi’.

“For the first time in 60 years, the people of India have given a mandate which has great significance. During my third term, I have very ambitious goals to achieve. We have to move forward with three times the strength.

“Every Indian has confidence in India and its achievements. India today is a land of opportunities. It’s no longer waiting for opportunities. It is now creating opportunities.

“This was possible because we changed our old way of thinking. We changed our approach. We empowered the poor. It is this new middle class, which is accelerating the development of India,” he said.

Modi stressed India will be at the forefront of “global development, global peace, global climate action, global innovations, global supply chains”.

He told Indian Americans they might have wallets in their pockets in the US, but people in India have digital wallets.

“No one can stop India now. India wants to have maximum mobile devices on ‘Made in India’ chips,” he said.

“Today’s India sees big dreams, chases big dreams. India no longer follows, it forges new systems and leads from the front.”

During the event, he also announced India will open two new consulates in Boston and Los Angeles, meeting the long-pending demand of the fast-growing Indian American community in these two large cities.

While Boston is considered the education and pharma capital of the US, Los Angeles, , home to Hollywood, is hosting the next summer Olympics and current US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti is the city’s former mayor.

Modi also revealed India’s ambition to host the 2036 Olympics. The country, he said, is aspiring to be the third-largest economy in the world, up from the fifth position. “Today, the people of India are full of self-confidence, they have the resolve and determination to achieve their goals. The development in India has now become a people’s movement,” the prime minister said.

After the event, Modi participated in a “fruitful” roundtable with the CEOs of leading American tech companies where he emphasised India’s growth prospects and discussed initiatives to foster bilateral collaborations across various sectors.

Google’s Sundar Pichai, Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen, IBM’s Arvind Krishna and NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang were among those who attended the meeting at the Lotte New York Palace Hotel last Sunday (22). Modi urged them to take advantage of India’s growth story and asked the companies to “co-develop, co-design and co-produce in India for the world”.

The previous day, Modi attended the Quad Leaders’ Summit, along with the prime ministers of Australia and Japan – Anthony Albanese and Fumio Kishida, respectively, at US president Joe Biden’s hometown in Wilmington, Delaware.

In a rare gesture, Biden also hosted Modi for a bilateral meeting in his home (the Quad summit was held at the Archmere Academy in Wilmington).

Modi said later, “Just yesterday, president Biden took me to his home in Delaware. His affection, his warmth, it was a moment that touched my heart. This respect is for you, for your achievements, for the hundreds and thousands of Indians living here.”

It was also revealed that 297 antiquities will be returned to India; a few of those were on display at Biden’s home when he hosted Modi.

During their meeting, Biden welcomed the progress made towards India in sealing the acquisition of 31 long-endurance MQ-9B armed drones from US defence major General Atomics.

Biden and Modi also vowed to boost the reciprocal supply of military hardware between the two countries.

Both leaders announced an India-US semiconductor pact, which aims to establish a plant to produce chips for national security, next-generation telecommunications and green energy applications.

This is India’s first such project, in which the country will provide chips to the US armed forces, allied militaries and also the Indian military.

Previous attempts at building homegrown semiconductor manufacturing facilities in India have not seen desired results. However, as the US aims to build resilience against China’s semiconductor industry, the new deal gives a renewed fillip to India.

Modi also held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Australia and Japan on the sidelines of the summit.

The leaders also announced the Quad Cancer Moonshot, a partnership to save lives in the Indo-Pacific region.

India further pledged $7.5 million (£5.6m) to combat cervical cancer in the Indo-Pacific region.