Manish Chand | India Writes

Building South-South Digital Bridge: Pan-African e-Network

October 22, 2015October 22, 2015 - by Manish Chand

It’s a digital bridge connecting the two emerging growth poles of the world in a transformational project of mutual empowerment and resurgence. Blending technology, innovation and creative diplomacy with the overarching project of socio-economic transformation and sustainable development, the Pan-African e-Network is bridging the digital divide across the African continent and is bringing tele-medicine and tele-education to the African people living thousands of miles away by linking them to premier educational institutions and super-specialty hospitals in India.

Why Merkel’s visit matters: Playing Berlin Sonata in New Delhi

October 4, 2015October 4, 2015 - by Manish Chand

Barely days after meeting the leader of Europe’s most powerful economy in New York at a summit meeting to push the UNSC reforms, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be engaging German Chancellor Angela Merkel for full-spectrum talks in New Delhi and seek Berlin’s renewed support for his pet missions of national renewal, including Make in India, Skill India and Smart Cities.
The fact that Ms Merkel is bringing with her six senior ministers and top corporate honchos for the October 4-6 trip to New Delhi and Bangalore underlines that the two countries are looking to push the envelope for what Europe’s top economy and Asia’s third largest economy can do together in a host of areas, including manufacturing, skill building, defence, vocational education and high-end R&D, core thrust areas of the burgeoning India-Germany partnership.
In seminal ways, India and Germany are made for each other, as Prime Minister Modi has said evocatively, conjuring up a match between resources and demographic dividend of Asia’s rising economy and Germany’s cutting-edge technology, research and innovations. Whichever way one looks at, Germany is pivotal to India’s project of national resurgence and will play a key role in India’s ambition to become a manufacturing hub, driven by innovation and enterprise.

India links effective UN peacekeeping with UNSC reforms

September 29, 2015September 29, 2015 - by Manish Chand

Raising the bar, India has unveiled plans to scale up its contribution to UN peacekeeping operations and linked it up with the urgent necessity of fast-tracking reform and expansion of the UN Security Council to make it more effective.

Modi-Obama meet: Climate change, terror, UNSC reforms top agenda

September 28, 2015September 28, 2015 - by Manish Chand

The climate has changed in the India-US relations, and it was palpable in sunny smiles and warmth seen between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Barack Obama as they met for the third time in a year

Modi jams for Indian Century in California

September 28, 2015October 3, 2015 - by Manish Chand

The Modi frenzy swamped the sprawling SAP Center in California on Sunday evening as nearly 19,000 Indians watched the masterly performer weave a spell with his trademark oratory and his radiant vision of India’s Century. It was a captivating show in the heart of Silicon Valley, with music, dance and frenzied chants of ‘Modi, Modi’ filling the huge auditorium

Modi’s Facebook Connect Moment: Tears, transformation and song of new India

September 28, 2015September 28, 2015 - by Manish Chand

It was the quintessential Facebook moment for India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, eliciting thousands of likes. In a spirited townhall-style meeting at the Faceboook headquarters at the sprawling Menlo Park near San Francisco, the leader of the world’s largest democracy interacted with Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and captive listeners as he waxed eloquent on the power of social media to connect people in a wired world.
Mr Modi, who deftly harnessed social media for his electoral campaign in the summer of 2014, spoke about his ambitious agenda for transforming India through digital revolution. But the moment that’s going to stay in memory of nearly 500 people present at the Facebook HQ and all those following it on TV is when the Indian prime minister got emotional when talking about his mother, his eyes moist with tears.

Modi Way: Unleashing a million Digital India dreams, in Silicon Valley

September 27, 2015September 28, 2015 - by Manish Chand

Welcome to Brave New Digital India, right in the heart of Silicon Valley – home to nearly half a million Indians and the crucible of innovation, creativity and enterprise. On a balmy laid back evening in San Jose plunging into Saturday night frenzy, there was a joyous celebration of the transformative power of technology and the power of ideas as India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi unfurled his radiant vision of Digital India in a wired world where Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are our “new neighbourhoods.”

“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,” said Mr Modi, triggering applause from the movers and shakers of Silicon Valley. Closeted with tech titans and pioneers, which included India-born Microsoft boss Satya Nadella and Google’s Sundar Pichai, Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen, Qualcomm’s Paul Jacobs, and Cisco’s John Chambers, the Indian leader expounded eloquently on his vision of a digitally empowered India, which is adding millions to its burgeoning online population every passing day. From a man who rose from being a tea-seller to the leader of the world’s largest democracy, Mr Modi knows how to sell dreams with conviction and has scripted a new anthem of digital redemption, with its own vocabulary and semantics.

Modi set for high-wire business diplomacy in New York

September 24, 2015September 24, 2015 - by Manish Chand

It’s business with a capital B for India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York. Expect PM Modi to drum up the India growth story and ease of doing business as he courts the corporate elite of the US on his day 1 in the US’ financial capital.

Are US-India ties directed at China? US envoy says no, look at India’s potential

September 18, 2015September 19, 2015 - by Manish Chand

Is India’s growing relationship with the US, as epitomized by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second visit to the US in a year, directed against China? Beijing thinks so, but Washington is wary of such a spin.

India’s Security Council dream get wings: Will it fly?

September 15, 2015September 15, 2015 - by Manish Chand

It’s a leap of faith, uplifting spirits and bringing much cheer to India’s diplomatic establishment. In a milestone of sorts, the UN General Assembly has finally adopted a negotiating text for reform and expansion of the UN Security Council, ending a thousand visions and revisions that marked the process for over two decades. The adoption of the negotiating text by consensus is a big boost for India’s quest for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council and the larger drive to make the global body more reflective of the tectonic power shift from the West to the rest.