One of the takeaways from this weeklong visit was that India has found a place at the UN high table at a lunch hosted by the UN chief Ban Ki Moon in honour of the visiting dignitaries for the 70th General Assembly. Modi was seated between Austrian President Heinz Fischer, and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.

The second was Modi’s bilateral meeting with the US President Barack Obama, his third date with him in one year. Modi knows that in just over a year he'll have to do business with a new US president but the meeting was warm with the two leaders hugging each other. The tone for the dialogue ahead of Modi’s third summit meeting was set a few days before with US Vice President Joe Biden saying “Our goal is to become India’s best friend.” Ahead of Mr. Modi’s visit, India had approved a multi-billion-dollar deal to buy Boeing helicopters. Obama, entering the last year of his presidency, would like to see economic integration, better market access and also get India’s support for the UN Climate Change Summit in Paris in December.

For Modi, getting American investment in manufacturing and using development funds from American companies for clean water, health, and sanitation were the priority areas. Modi used the summit to raise India’s claim for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. More importantly, Modi limited the visit to just waving across the table at the UN peace keeping meeting to the Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who tried his best to internationalize the Kashmir issue in vain.

The third was the G 4 summit hosted by Modi in New York. This special high-powered event with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who are aspirants for the proposed expanded Security Council, was a good effort. They back each other's bid.

Fourthly and more importantly, the Prime Minister rightly chose the main focus this time on economy and business from his last visit of “getting to know America”. He not only wooed the Wall Street big wigs but also travelled to the West coast to meet the IT giants and start up company CEOs. In his meeting with the 42 CEOs of the Fortune 500 in New York they had been polite while making it plain to him that unless he delivered on the ease of doing business and transparency, they would not invest their billions.

However, it was a different story on the West coast where he met the IT giants for the first time who were willing to go more than half way in coming up with some good investment plans in India. Modi received a warm response for his pet projects ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’. The Prime Minister’s carefully planned meeting with the Apple’s Tim Cook, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and electric carmaker Tesla's Elon Musk were important for his quest for technology support for India.

The takeaway from the Silicon Valley was the Google’s promise to provide wi-fi services in 500 railway stations.

This would be a great boon for the rural India. Microsoft CEO and India-born Satya Nadella also promised to take up low-cost broadband connectivity to five lakh villages across the country jointly with the government of India.

During his meeting with Apple CEO, Tim Cook, Modi invited Apple to set up a manufacturing base in India and if this happens it will provide a number of jobs locally. In his town hall meeting with Mark Zuckerberg, Modi spoke about how Facebook and the social media could be used for even connecting with the government. One of the main aims of Modi’s West Coast visit was to promote the startups in India and this too had good response. On the whole the initial response from the Silicon Valley was warm but how it translates into action is to be seen in the coming months.

The fourth take away was Modi’s connect with the Indian Diaspora on the West Coast. The Prime Minister has been cultivating the Indian Diaspora assiduously and his last year’s Madison Square Garden meeting wowed New York and even Washington and exhibited his clout among the Indian American community. This continued in the West Coast and the cheers he received from the Diaspora showed his popularity at the San Jose meeting.

Now that Modi is back, it is time to concentrate on delivery of the promises he made to the Silicon Valley and the Forutne 500 CEOs. The first is to take forward the momentum gained in the West Coast and create conditions for investment.

The second is to speed up the pace of reforms and deliver whatever is possible through executive orders. There are the banking reforms, labour reforms and other financial reforms, which needs to be taken up.

The third is to reduce the red tape and allow his ministers to take speedy decisions at their level, particularly those heading the economic ministries.

The fourth is to reshuffle his cabinet and bring talent even from the market and weed away the inefficient ministers.

Above all, connectivity, infrastructure, manufacturing, skill development and improving the economy should top his “to do” list at home. (IPA Service)