Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a historic visit to Ireland, after 59 years of the previous visit by an Indian PM, Jawaharlal Nehru in 1956. The visit was the first leg of his six day tour to Ireland and USA from 23-29 September 2015.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought Ireland’s support for India’s membership of UN Security Council and international export control regimes including NSG during wide ranging talks with his Irish counterpart which also covered global challenges like terror and radicalisation. During his nearly five-hour stopover en-route to the US, Modi, who is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Ireland in 59 years, held talks with his Irish counterpart Enda Kenny after which he hoped that Ireland’s visa policy will be sensitive to the requirements of India’s IT firms.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi also sought Ireland’s support for the reforms of the UNSC within a fixed time frame – in particular, for successful conclusion of inter-governmental negotiations in the 70th year of the United Nations.
India and Ireland are among the fastest growing economies of Asia and Europe.
On September 23, he flew to New York, where he addressed a UN Sustainable Development Summit and participate in a Summit on peacekeeping hosted by US President Barack Obama.
The Prime Minister also met several world leaders and have interactions with leading investors and financial sector firms. There was a working dinner where major Fortune-500 companies were present to deliberate on investment opportunities in India. He also traveled to West Coast where he visited Facebook Headquarters for a Townhall Q&A with its CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
He also visited Google campus and Tesla Motors. In San Jose, he interacted with the Indian community on September 27.
On the last day of his visit, Modi met leaders of the three permanent members of the UN Security Council — US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande.
India, US Sign 7 MoUs For Start-up Boost
Aimed at giving a big boost to startups in India, as many as seven MoUs have been signed between various organisations of India and the US.
The MoUs were signed as Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the India-US Start-up Konnect 2015.
- The first MoU between Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms and the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences is to develop Indo-US Life Science Sister Innovation Hub so as to enhance science-based entrepreneurship, research, academia and businesses by leveraging each other's ecosystems.
- Department of Biotechnology and Prakash Lab, Stanford University signed another MoU on Foldscope -- a frugal science innovation that has emerged from a lab of an Indian with majority of Indians working in this laboratory. The lab will work with DBT to further develop and deploy the products they develop.
- National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) and the Indus Entrepreneurs signed a MoU to collaborate in a mutually satisfactory form and manner to support the creation of a vibrant ecosystem to foster technology entrepreneurship in India and Silicon Valley.
- IIM Ahmedabad's Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) and Lester Centre for Entrepreneurship of the Haas Business School of the University of California, signed an MoU to collaborate on mutual incubation, and support each other's activities of mutual interest.
- CIIE also signed an MoU with Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator to extend NGIN Membership benefits to CIIE. The CIIE /LACI NGIN Landing Pad Programme is a reciprocal initiative that enables entrepreneurs and innovators in the cleantech space to gain access to the California and Indian markets. The programme will assist early and growth stage cleantech companies with market expansion through partnerships and funding opportunities in California and India.
- IIM Ahmedabad's CIIE signed an MoU with Tata Trust for founding partner for the Bharat Fund, which will provide seed funding to Indian entrepreneurs
- CIIE also signed an MoU with Google to support technology and impact entrepreneurs through strategic support.
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