Text of Speech by Prime Minister At the Digital India Dinner 26 September 2015, San Jose, California Thank you, Shantanu, John, Satya, Paul, Sunder, and Venkatesh A big thank you! I am sure this was not pre-arranged. But, here on stage you see a perfect picture of India-U.S. partnership in the digital economy. Good Evening, everyone! If there was ever a gathering under one roof that could claim to be shaping the world, it is this. And, I am not talking about those in public office, here or in India! It’s a great pleasure to be here in California. It is one of the last places in the world to see the sun set. But, it is here that new ideas see the first light of the day. It’s a great honour that you have joined us tonight. I have met many of you in Delhi and New York, and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. These are the new neighborhoods of our new world. If Facebook were a country, it would be the third most populous one and the most connected. Google today has made teachers less awe-inspiring and grandparents more idle. Twitter has turned everyone into a reporter. The traffic lights that need to work the best are on CISCO routers. The status that now matters is not whether you are awake or asleep, but whether you are online or offline. The most fundamental debate for our youth is the choice between Android, iOS or Windows. From computing to communication, entertainment to education, from printing documents to printing products, and, now to internet of things, it's been a long journey in a short time. From cleaner energy to better healthcare and safer transport, everything is converging around the work you do. In Africa, it's helping people transfer money on phone. It has made reaching small island states no longer a journey of adventure, but a convenient click of a mouse. In India, a mother in a distant hill village has a better chance to save her new born infant. A child in a remote village has better access to education. A small farmer is more confident about his land holding and getting better market price. A fisherman on the sea has a better catch. And, a young professional in San Francisco can Skype daily to comfort her sick grandmother in India. An initiative by a father in Haryana for "Selfie with daughter" to draw attention to the girl child became an international movement. All this is because of the work you people are doing. Since my government came to office last year, we have attacked poverty by using the power of networks and mobile phones to launch a new era of empowerment and inclusion: 180 million new bank accounts in a few months; direct transfer of benefits to the poor; funds for the unbanked; insurance within the reach of the poorest; and, pension for the sunset years for all. By using Space technology and internet, we have been able to identify in the last few months 170 applications that will make governance better and development faster. When a small craftsman in a village in India brings a smile to a customer looking at his phone on a metro ride in New York; When a heart patient in a remote hospital in Kyrgyz Republic is treated by doctors sitting in Delhi, as I saw in Bishkek, we know we are creating something that has fundamentally changed our lives. The pace at which people are taking to digital technology defies our stereotypes of age, education, language and income. I like recounting my meeting with a group of unlettered tribal women in a remote part of Gujarat. They were present at a local milk chilling plant I was inaugurating. They were using cell phones to take photographs of the event. I asked them what they would do with the images. The answer was a surprise for me. They said,they would go back, have the images downloaded on to a computer and take printouts. Yes, they were familiar with the language of our digital world. And, farmers in Maharashtra State have created a Whatsapp group to share information on farming practices. Customers, more than creators, are defining the use of a product. The world may be driven by the same ancient impulses. We will continue to see human struggles and successes. We will witness human glory and tragedies. But, 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. Read full speech here: http://deshgujarat.com/2015/09/27/full-text-of-narendra-modis-speech-at-digital-india-dinner-san-jose/ .

• published: 27 Sep 2015
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