Narendra Modi: Behold The Digital Deliverer

Modi dazzles the smartest in Silicon Valley.

- V Shobha

​The salad plates have just been cleared and the green tang of cilantro lingers in the air, somewhat at odds with the summer blooms atop the tables. Gathered for a special dinner this Saturday night, at a hotel in San Jose less than 5 miles from the airport, over 300 movers and shakers of Silicon Valley are awaiting the arrival of the star ingredient from India. By the time Prime Minister Narendra Modi breezes in, attired in a light brown bandgala suit, and takes his place onstage among a handful of illustrious Indians, this is already starting to look like a winning recipe. Adobe Systems CEO Shantanu Narayen, sporting a beard, hails the historic visit; Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella talks of making data, analytics and cloud services available to municipalities and students in Surat; Qualcomm Executive Chairman Paul E Jacobs announces a $150 million fund for Indian startups; the unassuming Sundar Pichai promises Google will connect hundreds of millions of Indians and add support for Indic languages including Gujarati; John Chambers, executive chairman and former CEO of Cisco Systems, reposes faith in Modi to “change the world and change India”. On their own, they are all perfectly good speeches, inspired, perhaps a little too readily, by the idea of a resurgent India. But there is a sense that the best is yet to come—from the man who, these smartest of executives believe, will help India meet its digital future.