Prime Minister Narendra Modi often meets global CEOs to boost industrial growth. History shows this trend started earlier. In June 1985, Rajiv Gandhi visited the US and persuaded Texas Instruments to set up a unit in Bengaluru. He also pushed GE to buy Indian software, helping many local tech firms grow.
Flip the card. Aren't we so happy when our Prime Ministers, or even chief ministers, visit the US, Japan, or France with key industrial plants and tech campuses on their itinerary? Or when Prime Minister Narendra Modi goes to meet Mark Zuckerberg at Menlo Park, invites Elon Musk, kids and all, for a private meeting and generously meets visiting CEOs?
As for the Congress, they should remember how Rajiv Gandhi brought the tech revolution to India. On his first visit to the US in June 1985, he reached out to Mark Shepherd Jr of Texas Instruments and persuaded him to set up his offshore unit in Bengaluru. Subsequently, he met Jack Welch of GE. Welch was told if he wanted India to buy his engines, he must buy software from our companies. Wipro and GE set up a joint venture. Some detail on how GE was wooed by Sam Pitroda, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Jairam Ramesh is found in DLF founder K P Singh's sequel memoir Why the Heck Not?