Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at San Jose’s SAP Centre in the Silicon Valley to a rousing welcome. Besides making a key announcement of a New Delhi–San Francisco Air India direct flight thrice a week, he covered a variety of issues in his address to the Indian diaspora. Here are the highlights:
- Today is 28th September in India. It is the birth anniversary of the brave son of India, Bhagat Singh. I am coming here after almost 25 years and I am seeing a lot of changes including new faces.
- Indians travelling the world and gaining experience, it was more of a “brain gain”. We would hear- we need to stop this brain drain. But India is Bahuratna Vasundhara, there will be many brains there
- There is a new identity, a new image. The old image has been forced down, and there is a reason for it. The reason is, your fingers are at work on a computer.
- Today, after 16 months, I want a certificate from you saying if I’ve fulfilled my duties or not. Do I have any allegations of corruption against me? Bete ne 250 crore banaaya, beti ne 500 crore banaaya, damaad ne hazaar crore banaaya, ye sun kar ke kaan pak gye ki nahin?
- There was a time when India was desperate to catch up with the world. Today, the world wants to be associated with India. Be it ‘World Bank’, ‘Moody’s’ or any other research agency, everyone is saying India is the fastest growing economy in the world.
- The world has started to believe that the 21st century now belongs to India. This change is not because of me, but because of 1.25 billion Indians. People who decide not to move with this change will become irrelevant.
- There are two major challenges facing the world today — terrorism and global warming. The UN still hasn’t been able to define terrorism, if it will take so much time to define, how much time will it take us to tackle it? There’s a debate of what is good terrorism and bad terrorism. We can’t save humanity if we distinguish. Terrorism is terrorism, terrorists are terrorists.
- J=Jan Dhan financial inclusion program, A=Aadhar unique identity card M=Mobile Governance. Penetration of technology is immense. Everybody has mobile phones today. E-governance is effective governance, easy governance & most economical governance.
- Aadhar cards have helped save subsidy wastage on 5 crore gas cylinders every month. About 30 lakh people have given up their subsidy.