Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday won over the Silicon Valley with his quotable one-liners on the digital revolution — originating from this part of the world — that is changing everyone’s life-style globally.
Sharing examples from his own personal life-style and those from people across India, including rural women, Mr. Modi punched his maiden address to the Silicon Valley with one liners that drew thunderous applause from the several hundred audiences that comprised of who’s who of the corporate sector.
“I have met many of you in Delhi and New York, and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram,” Mr. Modi said.
These are the new neighbourhoods of our new world, he said amidst applause from the audience. And then he went on to describe the iconic Silicon Valley companies in his own words.
“If Facebook were a country, it would be the third most populous one and the most connected,” he said.
Google today has made teachers less awe-inspiring and grandparents more idle.
Twitter has turned everyone into a reporter.
The traffic lights that need to work the best are on CISCO routers, Mr. Modi said amidst applause from the audience.
“The status that now matters is not whether you are awake or asleep, but whether you are online or offline. The most fundamental debate for our youth is the choice between Android, iOS or Windows,” he said.
From computing to communication, entertainment to education, from printing documents to printing products, and, now to internet of things, it’s been a long journey in a short time, the Prime Minister said.
From cleaner energy to better healthcare and safer transport, everything is converging around the work you do. In Africa, it’s helping people transfer money on phone. It has made reaching small island states no longer a journey of adventure, but a convenient click of a mouse, he noted.
“In India, a mother in a distant hill village has a better chance to save her new born infant. A child in a remote village has better access to education,” Mr. Modi said reflecting on the changes in one’s life brought by digital revolution.
A small farmer is more confident about his land holding and getting better market price. A fisherman on the sea has a better catch. And, a young professional in San Francisco can Skype daily to comfort her sick grandmother in India, he observed.
An initiative by a father in Haryana for “Selfie with daughter” to draw attention to the girl child became an international movement, he said.
“All this is because of the work you people are doing,” Mr. Modi said.
