INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
WASHINGTON: Past Indian Prime Ministers going back to Jawaharlal Nehru to PV Narasimha Rao to Atal Behari Vajpayee to Manmohan Singh loved
meeting public intellectuals privately and with little fanfare
But for sheer range of engagement and showmanship, involving both statecraft and stagecraft, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit it out of the
park in the Big Apple on Tuesday.Also See: Modi in US LiveSome of the most iconic names in academia, business, science, spirituality, and
entertainment got 15-minutes of facetime each with Modi in a New York hotel that was once owned by the Sultan of Brunei and was home to
entertainers Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston among others
The Prime Minister's checklist of meetings included one-on one's with Lebanese-American essayist, mathematical statistician, and risk
analyst Nassim Nicholas Taleb, astrophysicist, author, and science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson, billionaire investor and hedge fund
manager Ray Dalio, Nobel laureate economist Paul Romer, and Buddhist academic Robert Thurman, among others.Remarkably, each found a stage
after the meeting to talk up India's promise and potential, often in the process lavishing praise on the Prime Minister
From Neil deGrasse Tyson: "I was delighted to spend time in the company of a head of state who is as scientifically thoughtful as Prime
Minister Modi." From Paul Romer: "It was a great meeting
We talked about the importance of successful urban development
He understands these issues very well
PM articulated it very well that urbanisation is not a problem
India can show the way to the world on the authentication front with programs like Aadhaar." And from Ray Dalio: "Narendra Modi is a man
I admire his passion towards research and scholarship on aspects relating to Buddhism
related issues with @neiltyson Highlighted steps India is taking to reform the space sector and draw more youngsters towards science as well
as innovation.""Glad to have met noted economist and Nobel laureate, Professor@paulmromer
We had extensive conversations on leveraging technology to improve lives
We also talked about how to make our cities more sustainable and people friendly.""Professor @nntaleb has interesting perspectives on many
issues and I had the opportunity to hear them on some of those subjects
I emphasised on how we are nurturing a spirit of enterprise and risk taking among our youth."Indeed, one the more engaging exchanges came
following Modi's meeting with Taleb, who is also author of the 2007 book The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, which looks at
the impact of rare and unpredictable outlier events
Taleb later revealed that his conversation with Modi covered anti-fragility, risk taking, and the ability to bounce back from adversity --
lightning rod topics for a Prime Minister pilloried for Covid response and demonetization."I commended India for its response to Covid and
how India has very efficiently dealt with it, particularly with food distribution," Taleb later tweeted, adding, "Early failure is tuition
Late failure is punishment."Illustrative of the wide range of opinion Modi sought, he also meet Elon Musk, who has often clashed with Taleb,
and who believes the covid response was excessive and disproportionate.Modi also met leaders of academia, including presidents and
vice-presidents of major American universities (some of them Indian-Americans), briefing them about the "transformative potential of our
National Education Policy" and seeking ideas to further strengthen the education sector in India with a focus on skills and innovation, a
subject he has been engaged with them in the past."Thank you for instructing your amazing team to follow up on our ideas for scaling
skills-based training of health tech innovators and healthcare workers anchored in @Stanford @SUBiodesign process
And for pushing to create appropriate policy environment for implementation of innovative health technologies developed by Indian
innovators," tweeted Anurag Mairal, a Stanford University professor of medicine, before dashing to the airport to catch a a flight to
India."He has a sweeping global vision to raise the standards of higher education and is very focused on what he and his government can do
He asked questions, listened with great interest and shared with passion his ideas
This includes partnerships, bringing back faculty to India, deepening research and digital education," Grammy nominated artiste and
vice-chairman of board of trustees at New York University (NYU), who also happens to be former Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi's sister, told ToI
In what is the largest single donation by Indian-Americans in the US, the Tandon's have given $ 100 million to what is now called the NYU
Tandon School of Engineering.WatchPM Modi in US: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Paul Romer, Ray Dalio and Nassim Nicholas Talib speak about their
