Updated
Silicon Valley, Sep 27 (PTI): 'Digital India' is an enterprise to transform India in a scale unmatched anywhere in the world and it has the potential to make development truly inclusive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today.
"Digital India is an enterprise for India's transformation on a scale that is, perhaps, unmatched in human history," Modi said while speaking about his ambitious Digital India initiative before a gathering of Silicon Valley CEOs.
Modi, the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Silicon Valley in more than three decades, said his government wants paperless transactions.
"We would set up digital locker for every citizens to share documents across departments," he said.
"After MyGov.in, we have just launched the Narendra Modi Mobile App. They are helping me stay in close touch with people," he said amidst applause from the audience.
"I want our 1.25 billion citizens to be digitally connected," Modi said, describing the steps taken by his government towards broadband connectivity.
"I see technology as a means to empower and as a tool that bridges the distance between hope and opportunity," he added.
"In this digital age, we have an opportunity to transform lives of people in ways that was hard to imagine just a couple of decades ago," the Prime Minister said, adding that the pace at which people are taking to digital technology defies stereotypes of age, education, language and income.
"We must ensure that technology is accessible, affordable and adds value," he said, adding that his government is giving highest priority to cyber security, intellectual property.
"I see technology as a means to empower and as a tool that bridges the distance between hope and opportunity," he said.
Recognising that a Digital India could not be built without bridging the digital divide, he listed out the measures taken by his government to bridge this digital divide.
"From large corporates to young professionals in this great center of innovation, each can be part of India story," he said.
"Building upon that vision, we conceive of Digital India, to fundamentally transform the way our nation will work," the Prime Minister said.
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayan, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Qualcomm executive chairman Paul Jacobs were among those present at the event.
Earlier Report
Modi meets Silicon Valley tech honchos
Paolo Alto (California), Sep 27 (IANS) : Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his one-on-one engagement with the tech honchos of Silicon Valley with a 15-minute interaction with Apple chief executive Tim Cook.
The lining up of such meetings include Who's Who of the tech world in this part of the US, including MicroSoft's Satya Nadella, Google's Sundar Pichai, Qualcomm's Paul Jacobs, Cisco's John Chambers, Adobe's Shantanu Narayen and TiE's Venk Shukla.
Cook told the prime minister that Apple has a major connect with India and that the company's co-founder, the late Steve Jobs, went to the South Asian country for inspiration.
After his arrival at Norman Y. Minte San Jose International Airport, Modi -- who is the first Indian prime minister to visit the US West Coast since Indira Gandhi did in 1982 -- had an informal meeting with the Indian diaspora first and then left for the Tesla Motors facility.
Tesla's chief executive Elon Musk then gave the prime minister, who is an ardent supporter of new and renewable energy, a tour of the company's trend-setting electric car plant here.
"Prime Minister Modi and I talked about electricity generation and how there are ways to skip ahead with it as with cellphones," Musk, also the company's principal engineer, inventor and investor, said later.