Houston (TIP)

The Texas India Forum, a Houston-based non-profit, will host “Howdy, Modi!” a large community summit that will host India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the region on September 22, 2019. “Howdy”, shorthand for “How do you do?,” is a friendly greeting commonly used in the southwestern United States.

The event is expected to bring together tens of thousands of people to encourage and explore common interests and an expanded partnership between the United States and India’s fast growing economy. Texas alone has over 500,000 people of Indian descent, contributing significantly to signature sectors including space, energy, medicine, education, information technology, and business.

“There is unprecedented synergy between our region and the aspirations of a ‘New India’ that Prime Minister Narendra Modi represents. The American dream shares many similarities with emerging Indian dream, and an event of this scale suggests an opportunity to build bridges across two great democracies,” said Jugal Malani, a convener of the “Howdy, Modi!” organizing committee.

Attendance at the summit will be free, but passes will be required. Passes are available on a first-come-first- serve basis and exclusively through an online registration process (www.howdymodi.org). Hundreds of prominent business and community leaders from across America are expected to attend.

In addition to the Prime Minister’s address, the program is expected to include a cultural program that showcases the Indian-American community and will be broadcast live online and on television channels reaching over 1 Billion people across the United States and India.

This will be the first trip to the United States for Prime Minister Modi after his landslide victory in Indian elections earlier this year. The Prime Minister of India has previously addressed similar gatherings at Madison Square Garden in New York and the SAP Center in San Jose.