Satya Nadella meets PM Modi, IT minister; talks digital inclusion

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Satya Nadella on Tuesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and discussed the company’s digital inclusion programme that leverages technology for improving rural health care and education.

The India-born CEO also participated in a round table at the NITI Aayog on tapping into cloud computing for good governance in the country.

In a tweet, NITI Aayog said: “@Microsoft CEO @satyanadella answers queries of senior government officials on secure use big data and cloud computing for good governance.”

It also shared a photograph of the NITI Aayog’s Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya presenting Nadella a book titled State Forward about best practices in governance from States. Nadella and Ravi Shankar Prasad talked about the software giant’s rural digital initiatives and about leveraging its professional networking platform, LinkedIn, for creating employment opportunities.

Satya Nadella, who is on a multi-city tour, is scheduled to address a conference on ‘Future Decoded’ in Mumbai.

He was in India’s tech hub Bengaluru on Monday and spoke on a slew of topics including Artificial Intelligence and re-skilling. He met with the start-up community and unveiled a cloud partnership with e-tailer Flipkart.

Terming his meeting with Nadella as “fruitful”, Prasad said India would look at applying the experiences of Microsoft’s pilot project in Harisal for its newly-announced ‘Digi Gaon’ initiative.

“Microsoft is doing good work in India. In particular, we have appreciated their initiative for digital inclusion in villages...the Harisal pilot project in Maharashtra where they brought in a lot of technology and connectivity for digital health and digital education...,” Prasad said after the 30-minute meeting.

“This is something I am considering for replication...given our larger vision of digital village announced in the Budget by the FM under ‘Digi Gaon’ initiative,” he added.

Prasad said other issues that were discussed in detail included “LinkedIn involvement in skilling professionals to be exposed to good job opportunities”.

“In particular, LinkedIn exposure for creating more employment opportunities and ‘Digi Gaon’ becoming a success with application of the experience of pilot project in Harisal, is something we eagerly look forward to,” Prasad said.