Tech-leaders from Silicon Valley joined in large number to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his historic US State visit, which begins from 21st June 2023. Technocrats comprising of CEO’s, Vice-Presidents, Global Head of leading companies took part in the Conference on ‘India-US partnership: A key to new world Tech-Order’ which was organized by NID Foundation and Indian Minorities Foundation at San Jose, California.
The conference was the first curtain-raiser event organized to mark the upcoming Prime Minister’s historic visit that starts from 21st June 2023. The Tech-Leaders in a joint statement said that they are excited for the PM Modi’s US visit and pinned high hopes that the bilateral meeting between the Indian Prime Minister and US President Joe Biden would open new avenues of partnership between the two nations.
Attorney General of California Rob Bonta presided over the conference along with IMF Convener and NID Chief Patron Satnam Singh Sandhu and NID Founder Prof. Himani Sood. Amongst the prominent techies from the Silicon Valley who attended the conference included Global Head AI Nations, NVIDIA Ms. Shilpa Kolhatkar, President of Product and Engineering, Zoom Video Communications, Velchamy Sankarlingam Gam, Alok Aggarwal- CEO at Scry-AI; Rashmi Singhal, Senior Technical Recruiter (LinkedIN); Nitu Nanda, Senior VP Bank of America and Sammy Sidhu, CEO and Co-Founder at Eventual, Johal, CEO of Wendy’s Pacific; Dr. Dalvir Pannu, CEO of Pannu Dental Group in California; Jeevan Zutshi, Founding Chapter President of the Silicon Valley Chapter of Global Organization of the People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) and Founding member of the California Chapter of Kashmiri Overseas Association; Neeraj Bhatia, CPA and FCA (Bhatia & CO) amongst others.
Attorney General of California, Rob Bonta said that Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi is a popular leader not only in India but in the United States of America (USA) and he has taken some good steps to unite the world for various global issues. “The USA is looking forward to strengthening its ties with the world’s largest democracy. India is an emerging economic power and every country including the USA is looking forward to having India as its partner in the emerging world,” he said.
AG Rob Bonta, further said, “For California, diversity is the strength and people from all corners of the globe come here to build, innovate, and create and at the front of it is always the India-American community. We have a strong and thriving Indian American community here in California and they are leading in various fields. California is on the verge of becoming the fourth-largest economy in the world. it is growing and we are leading the nation in job creation. From business, and startups to manufacturing, entertainment, and technology, we lead in so many things” said Rob Bonta, adding that it is something that does not happen without the support of entrepreneurs and businessmen who create an idea and turn it into reality.
He further stated, “It is also important that we work together and rise together. What we are celebrating together is our commitment to one another for working together, sharing ideas, building new technologies and progress, and creating pathways forward for both of our nations. One of the things that has been powerful to us is the incredible strength, talent, and innovation of the Indian American community here. Both countries acknowledge our shared values and concerns. We seek further strengthening of ties between India and USA.”
Founding Chapter President of the Silicon Valley Chapter of Global Organization of the People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) & Founding member of the California Chapter of Kashmiri Overseas Association, Jeevan Zutshi said that the people of Jammu and Kashmir have gone through difficult times during the past 33 years with issues related to cross-border terrorism, which led Kashmiri Pandits to migrate from the state to different parts of the world.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi proved himself a strong leader by taking the bold decision of Abrogation of Article 370, which was not done in the past 65 years by previous governments only to appease a few people. Owing to the consistent efforts of PM Modi, people in J&K today feel safe and secure and Kashmiri Pandits who had to flee 33 years back, are now considering it safe to come back to their homeland,” said Jeevan Zutshi.
He said that PM Narendra Modi exposed Pakistan for supporting cross-border terrorism, and made the country stand-alone in the world for promoting such activities. He further mentioned that Indo-American Community Federation, founded by him, also works for promoting pluralism, to promote unity in diversity, and make sure everyone lives in harmony.
Jeevan Zutshi further added, “Under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, Kashmir has prospered and is doing extremely well in terms of development, infrastructure, and security. J&K has got a record amount of 2.5 billion US$ of investment since 2019 and I foresee a very bright future for the state as the state is involved in the economic development of the nation. In 2022, the state of Jammu and Kashmir recorded the highest number of tourists, and people are also investing in buying land in the state. It is a sign of progress for the state and clear proof that J&K during the last 9 years has become a preferred destination for tourism and investment.”
Global Head of AI Nations at NVIDIA, Shilpa Kolhatkar said that during the last 9 years, the living standard of every Indian has improved, and progress has been made in every aspect such as technological advancements. “India has a bright future as the government is laying stress on the usage of New Technology to boost FDI investments, Research, Startup Ecosystem, and upskilling of the youth, said Shilpa Kolhatkar.
Shilpa Kolhatkar said that AI is mainstream now and it has taken over the world. It is a tool that is accessible to every age group. India has a population of 1.4 billion and thousands of AI startups are flourishing in India and it is the right bed for innovation. Apart from this with the young population of India, it is the right bed for upskilling and innovation. It is a good time to make the youth realize the importance of AI, we should make them the practitioner of AI not just the user. The government of India is contributing a lot to making India more tech savvy I am very happy that this year that the union budget 2023 focuses on AI Solutions and 5G Applications in India. Three centers of excellence for AI will be established to support the goals of “Make AI in India” and “Make AI Work for India. PM Modi’s push for AI will contribute to making India the next global economic powerhouse”.
She further added that we are in that era of early stages of policies and regulations are catching up very fast and the pace of AI and technology is so fast that policies and regulators must run marathons as the company we are doing our part in making sure that the tools and technology are available for the policymakers and regulators to make the right informed decisions and in terms of the providing the guardrails or to provide the checks and balances so that It functions within those boundaries where humans go and decide those boundaries so that the tool doesn’t act outside and it detects somebody is trying to steer in the bad direction it catches and its stops working. “I really like the stands India has taken to make a balance between innovation and regulation, I have worked with many countries in the world, but India is unique and different, it more Innovation focused, and it has huge potential to innovate fast and then once they have innovation, they have policies and regulations they do not hold back. It is a very delicate blend to make sure that policy and regulations are encouraging innovations,” said Shilpa Kolhatkar.
IMF convener, Satnam Singh Sandhu, said that PM Modi’s upcoming historic visit to the USA will take the relationship between the two Nations to new heights. “This is a historic State Visit by any Prime Minister of India which shows the close friendship between PM Modi and President Joe Biden. The partnership between India-USA has scaled to new heights under the leadership of PM Modi. President Joe Biden is Global Leader, a refined statesman who has immense popularity amongst US Citizens, especially amongst the Indian Diaspora for his democratic values and views,” he said.
Satnam Singh Sandhu, said, “Indian diaspora in the United States is comprised of approximately 4.8 million people, who are ecstatic about PM Modi’s US visit and looking forward to meeting their beloved leader,” Satnam Singh Sandhu said.
He further stated that it took 65 years for India to become the 10th largest economy in the world but under the leadership of PM Modi, it only took 8 years for India to become the 5th largest economy in the world and the is all set to become 3rd largest economy by 2027 overtaking Germany and Japan.
“The 9 years of PM Modi’s leadership have been marked by the technological revolution that touches the common man’s life. PM Modi has ensured corruption-free, transparent, and good governance and with the use of technology PM Modi has been able to save Rs. 2.23 lakh crore of the Nation’s money due to Direct Benefit Transfers eliminating the middleman,” said Satnam Singh Sandhu.
He emphasized that digital India has been the backbone of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s good governance. “India has become the fastest-growing digital economy in the world. Currently, 40 percent of digital transactions in the world are being done in India. The digital economy will contribute 20 percent to India’s economy by 2025. India has transformed its Global Image from being a Nation of Scams to a Nation with Good Governance,” Satnam Singh Sandhu added.
He also said that PM Modi’s push for Digital India has contributed big time to making India the fastest-growing economy in the World. PM Modi has successfully transformed India into the World’s Leading Economic powerhouse by using technology.
Senior Technical Recruiter of Linked, Rashmi Singhal said that in the last 9 years, PM Narendra Modi has developed many schemes like job fairs under the Ministry of Education. they have come up with the Kaushal Vikas Yojana at school levels. those initiatives are great. She said we need a platform at schools, colleges, and universities where young minds collaborate with skill development at an early age and it is a fantastic thing. Artificial Intelligence is one of the examples of that. India has a long way to go in the field of technology.
CEO of Pannu Dental Group, California, Dr. Dalvir Singh Pannu said, “The world is eager to watch the Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy visit the world’s strongest democracy. India has scaled to new heights under the leadership of PM Modi, and the global image of the nation has transformed into a major global economic power. The government of India is also reaching out to Indian Diaspora for seeking their contribution towards nation building. Today every Indian living outside the country walks with great pride as a citizen of the country which has become the world’s fastest-growing economy.”
Sukhi Chahal, Founder, and CEO of The Khalsa Today and the founder and chairman of Punjab Foundation, a Silicon Valley, California-based nonprofit organization said that this roundtable conference is a step to strengthen India-Us bilaterally. While thanking Joe Johal and Satnam Singh Sandhu for inviting him to the event, Sukhi Chahal said, “We thank PM Modi for what he has done for the Sikh community in the last 9 years. He is the first Prime Minister who has done a lot for the minority communities of India. In fact, not only in India but for the minorities living in other countries. Be it the 550th birth celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev ji, Veer Bal Diwas, or the Kartarpur corridor, he has done so well for the Sikh community. He is doing great efforts to uplift the Indian Diaspora in the world. We can resolve a lot, we can achieve a lot with this kind of dialogue,” Sukhi Chahal said.
Anand Kuchibhotla, founder and chairman, University of Silicon Andhra, said that India is very rich in cultural heritage especially the multitude of languages and dialects, which are thousands of years old, and there is a huge potential to spread this heritage using Artificial Intelligence. “The University of Silicon Andhra is the only university outside India that offers graduate programs in Indian classical music and dance. We are also starting a master’s program in Computer Science with AI in August. We can use AI but we need the help from Indian government so that we can work together,” said Anand Kuchibhotla.
Sharing her views on Indo-US relations, Bank of America Senior Vice President Nitu Nanda said that Bank of America, which is the second largest bank in the United States, shares a great relationship with India. She said, “Bank of America has a great presence of Indians and has a lot of its operations outsourced and based in India because of their relationship. Being in the banking sector for the past 21 years, I have witnessed the correlation in the financial industry inclusive of the large client base as well as the employee base of Indian origin, and we ensure that we connect with the entire community. Many of the top position holders within Bank of America are also of Indian origin, including Aditya Bhasin, Chief Technology, and Information Officer at Bank of America; and Savita Subramanian, Head of US Equity & Quantitative Strategy, which further throws light on its relationship with India.”
Sammy Sidhu, CEO & Co-founder of Eventual, said that he has worked closely with medical Artificial Intelligence research at Berkeley and self-driving cars at both DeepScale (acquired by Tesla). He said, “I have been working with AI for over a decade now and it is interesting to see where we are in terms of AI today. And if we are playing a history where before AI development took decades of having massive teams of experience age and the main bottom knocker you need to produce and compute the technology. We are at a point where there is not just going to be Google and Facebook, and all of that competing about the nation-states, such as India, but something more than that being built.”
Chief Global Service Operations at Iron Systems Bob Sidhu said, “IT Companies set up by Indians in South India spread to different parts of the world and today hold a large presence in the Northern part of the country, such as Punjab. However, the main challenge being faced by the IT companies is network connectivity. Since a lot of skilled workforces in India belong to remote areas of the country, network connectivity is one important aspect that needs to be addressed. If we can build a good network for them to excel, the workforce that is not being utilized today can be utilized too. Not to mention that good network connectivity will also ensure global connectivity and enable us to see the real benefits of the work done by the other organizations.” He also mentioned that most companies in India today focus on skills during recruitment and prefer upskilling the employees to maintain a global standard.
S5 Advisory Executive Managing Director Yogi Chugh said, “I moved to the USA about 37 years back for better professional and personal benefits, and a huge number of Indians have migrated to different parts of the world for similar reasons. India under the leadership of PM Modi is progressing in every aspect, which is convincing the Indian Diaspora living across the globe to move back to their country.”
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