With many tech-based presentations lined up for him, PM Narendra Modi needs to brush up on tech terms

WASHINGTON: Prime Minister Narendra Modi better brush up on all terms techie. He is scheduled to watch a presentation by the winners of a Google ‘hackathon' being held to coincide with his visit to Silicon Valley. A group of young computer programmers will have spent the previous 24 hours developing apps and the two best will be shown to Modi while he is at the Google headquarters on September 27.

A hackathon is the Valley's extreme sport of choice — a coding event for software developers spending an intense couple of days or more working on a specific project. The prime minister will also watch a demonstration of a driverless car.

Modi's two-day visit to Silicon Valley is turning out to be an extravaganza of the who's who of the technology world, with CEOs of Facebook to Tesla to Google to Microsoft to Cisco. Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella will make presentations at a ‘digital-themed' dinner.

Since the Valley climate is seeped in the latest buzzwords of the technology world, Modi may do well to read ahead. There may be talk of the Internet of Things, Big Data, Segment of One, or Quantified Self (see box for clues).

Modi will also attend a small event at his hotel with academics from Stanford University, experts and CEOs from the world of solar and renewable energy. The energy storage industry has made dramatic progress over the last couple of years, giving hope to many that finally solar energy may be available even when the sun is not shining.

The leap from residential to grid-scale use of stored energy is expected in the coming years, something that will revolutionise the energy sector. It could be crucial for energy-starved India.

Modi's Silicon Valley tech tour will end with the big diaspora event at the SAP Center before he flies back to New York. The audience is expected to be around 18,000 for the mega rally. It's clearly startup — and smell the coffee — time for the prime minister.