Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Sunday address thousands of Indian-Americans at the mega “Howdy, Modi!” event in the United States’ Houston city.
Modi, who is on a week-long visit to the United States , will also address the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. He interacted with CEOs of leading energy companies in Houston in his first event in the US on Saturday evening. He will later this week hold talks with US President Donald Trump and review the bilateral relations between the two nations among other things.
“In Houston, I look forward to my meeting with and address to the Indian-American community. Their success in diverse fields, their contribution to the US in various walks of life, their strong bonds with India and their role as a living bridge between our two democracies is a source of pride for us,” PM had said before leaving.
Here’s the ‘Howdy, Modi!’ event in numbers:
* 50,000 people are expected to attend the event that was fully booked with days to go at Houston’s NRG Stadium
* With 130,000 Indian-Americans, Houston city, which will host the mega ‘Howdy, Modi!’ event, has one of the largest populations of the diaspora in the US.
* 60 lawmakers are expected to attend the event, including John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, Ami Bera, Raja Krishnamurthy, Brad Sherman, and governor Eliot Engel of New York. Tulsi Gabbard has excused herself from the event due to prior commitments related to her presidential campaigns in Iowa.
* The event will also focus on the growing trade between India and Houston. India is Houston’s fourth-largest trading partner, just behind Brazil, China and Mexico, in 2019 to date. From 2009 to 2018, trade between Houston and India averaged $4.8 billion annually and was valued at $7.2 billion in 2018.
* 1,000 volunteers and 650 Welcome Partner organisations are involved in organising the event.
*Nearly 90 organisations are expected to participate in the event.
*A 90-minute cultural programme – “Woven: The Indian-American Story” – will precede Prime Minister Modi’s address. The performances are a celebration of Indian-Americans and their valuable contributions to the cultural, intellectual and social landscape of the US.
* More than 1 billion people across the US and India are expected to watch its broadcast live online and on television channels.
* This will be PM Modi’s third major address to the Indian-American community after he became the prime minister in 2014 and the first after his re-election in May. The previous two were at the Madison Square Garden in New York in 2014 and the Silicon Valley in 2016. Both the events were attended by more than 20,000 people.
