MODI MOODY AT FACEBOOK RECALLING CHILDHOOD
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi received a warm welcome at Facebook headquarters last week for a town hall hosted by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg that focused as much on the two men’s backgrounds as the business potential of the world’s second most-populous country.
Mr Modi’s voice broke as he described his humble beginnings. “I came from a very poor family. We went to our neighbours’ houses nearby to clean dishes, fill water, do hard chores. So you can imagine what a mother had to do to raise her children.”
For his part, Mr Zuckerberg opened the event by telling Mr Modi about a little-known incident several years ago when Facebook “wasn’t doing so well”. His mentor, the late former Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, urged him to take a spiritual trip to India and visit a specific temple there. That journey cleared his head and helped reaffirm Facebook’s mission to connect billions of people around the world.
The Indian premier also talked about the importance of social media and his “Digital India” initiative, which seeks to connect thousands more Indian villages to the internet and boost technology investments.
Mr Modi did not offer any new announcements, pointing to government programmes aimed at combating problems and his administration’s success in improving internet accessibility.
Mr Modi, 65, is the first Indian leader to visit the US West Coast in more than 30 years. His trip follows a similar visit by China’s president, Xi Jinping, who met several tech leaders in Seattle last week.
He later visited Google headquarters and met with Indian-born chief executive Sundar Pichai. Mr Pichai announced that Google would bring wireless internet to 500 Indian railway stations.
Mr Zuckerberg had invited users to post questions for Mr Modi on Facebook. More than 46,000 comments were made in reply, with some questions regarding criticism that Mr Modi did not do enough to stop 2002 religious riots in Gujarat that killed about 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, when he was chief minister of the state. He has vehemently denied any wrongdoing. No questions on that subject were brought up at the event.
Mostly Sikh protesters calling on Mr Modi to answer for his human rights record temporarily blocked one of Facebook’s entrances. However, he generally received a rock-star welcome through most of his visit.
Mr Modi boasts an 87% approval rating in India and is the second-most popular world leader on social media after US President Barack Obama.
On Saturday, he attended a dinner with 350 business leaders where Indian-born chief executives Satya Nadella of Microsoft Corp, Shantanu Narayen of Adobe Systems Inc and Mr Pichai of Google moderated a panel.
Mr Modi then visited Tesla Motors headquarters and met chief executive Elon Musk, where the two discussed renewable energy. He also met Apple chief executive Tim Cook.