Quite a buzz about PM's visit to Silicon Valley: US Ambassador

New Delhi, Sep 14: US Ambassador to India Richard Verma on Monday said that there is quite a buzz about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's forthcoming visit to Silicon Valley and hoped that it will provide an opportunity to explore new technology that would help India in development of Smart Cities and other infrastructure facility.

"There is quite a buzz about PM’s visit to San Francisco and Silicon Valley in the US, and not just from the vibrant Indian-American community there, which over the last two decades has helped transform the high technology sector and bring our nations’ culture of innovation and entrepreneurship even closer," he said.

The Prime Minister will be in San Francisco to attend a United Nations summit on sustainable development on September 25.

He will visit Silicon Valley, California, on September 27 as part of his US visit. Modi's visit will provide an opportunity to explore how new technologies can help India with issues such as building safe, clean, and smart cities, providing opportunity for a quality education, securing reliable electricity for hundreds of millions of its people, and much more, he said.

American businesses are very eager to partner with India to find new solutions to these issues, he said in his address to 11th Indo-U.S. Economic Summit here.

"We are looking forward for this visit...everything is shaping up very well and we are all excited about it," he said on the sidelines of the summit.

Verma said "under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi and President (Barack) Obama, our governments are working together on increased engagement and new initiatives to reach the USD 500 billion goal in the years to come.

We have made incredible progress in the past year and look forward to even greater strides going forward."

Highlighting that India has become the second largest source of investment in the US, he said, according to a survey, more than 91,000 jobs were created and 15 billion dollars invested in the US.

The US investments in India have soared – from a total of USD 7.7 billion in 2004 to USD 28 billion today, he said, adding, there are over 500 US companies active in India, while the number of Indian companies operating in the United States has increased from roughly 85 in 2005 to over 200 now.

"Indian companies collectively have a geographical footprint in every state in the nation, are diversified in sectors from IT to automotive to construction, and the overwhelming majority of these companies intend to make additional investments and hire more employees in the US in the next five years," he said.

PTI