PM Modi to meet Boeing, Amazon and Google CEOs today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet chief executives of Indian and American firms today at the White House to discuss innovation, investment, and manufacturing in a variety of technology sectors, including Artificial Intelligence, semiconductors, and space. The top business leaders, including CEOs of Boeing, Amazon and Google, will gather in the East Room at 9:05 pm IST for the meeting with the Indian prime minister. After the meeting, Vice President Kamala Harris and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will host Modi for a luncheon.

Modi's meeting with Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun comes a day after the aircraft manufacturing company announced a $100 million investment in infrastructure and programs to train pilots in India. The announcement comes on the heels of Air India signing orders of over 200 jets earlier this week from Boeing, which include 20 787 Dreamliners, 10 777Xs, and 190 737 MAX narrowbody aircraft.

On Thursday, the prime minister held bilateral discussions in which technology cooperation featured prominently.

"Technology featured in talks, not in a limited way but technology cooperation across the ecosystem. This included technology transfer, services and working together in research among other domains," Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said.

The bilateral talks were followed by PM Modi's address to the joint session of the US Congress, becoming the first Indian leader to do so twice. He first addressed a joint meeting of the US Congress in 2016.

More than 400 guests were invited to the dinner hosted by President Biden and First Lady Jill at a specially decorated pavilion on the South Lawn of the White House. At the state dinner too, tech honchos like Apple's Tim Cook, Google's Sundar Pichai and Microsoft's Satya Nadella rubbed shoulders with high-profile guests from various fields.