Prime Minister Narendra Modi departed late Sunday from the Makkah of global technology, the Silicon Valley, leaving it rather impressed with his digital initiatives over a 36-hour whirlwind tour -- back to the citadel of global diplomacy and geopolitics in New York.In the final engagement at the SAP Center here, reminiscent of the grand reception he was accorded exactly a year ago at Madison Square Garden in Big Apple, Modi left after announcing a "physical" connect between US's tech capital San Francisco and the Indian national capital New Delhi.He announced a direct flight, twice a week, between the two cities from December 2 to be operated by India's flag carrier Air India. Modi, in fact, returned to the stage to make the announcement after he had ended his hour-long speech.The prime minister had already impressed the top chief executives of some of the world's best-known technology companies with a quip that he was already in virtual touch with them and others in this tech hub through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
"Goodbye California! PM @narendramodi departs San Jose for New York, after a very productive weekend," tweeted foreign office spokesperson Vikas Swarup, soon after Modi concluded his visit -- the first by an Indian prime minister to the West coast since Indira Gandhi's Los Angeles visit in 1982.A packed schedule awaits the prime minister once again in New York on Monday.There is a bilateral with President Francois Hollande of France, a call-on by World Bank President Jim Young Kim, a lunch to be hosted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, a one-on-one with the charismatic, young Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and a leaders’ summit on peacekeeping.The most-watched engagement, however, will be a meeting with US Barack Obama.