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The close succession of these meetings on Tuesday highlights the government’s proactive approach to attracting top-tier technology partners
Tan lauded PM Modi for implementing a semiconductor manufacturing policy. (Image: X/@LipBuTan1)
In a significant show of confidence in India’s digital economy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi engaged in high-profile meetings with the chief executive officers of three major global technology giants—Cognizant, Microsoft, and Intel—on a single day. The back-to-back discussions, held in New Delhi, underscored the government’s intense focus on attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) in strategic areas like artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, and digital infrastructure. All three CEOs reportedly left the meetings promising substantial new investments in India.
The series of meetings began with Ravi Kumar S, the head of Cognizant, the multinational IT services giant. The conversation with the CEO focused on scaling up the company’s operations in India, particularly in its largest development centres in Chennai and Pune. Discussions are understood to have centred on job creation and leveraging India’s vast talent pool to drive growth in next-generation digital engineering and cloud services. Cognizant executives expressed commitment to aligning their growth strategy with the Indian government’s vision for digital public infrastructure (DPI).
Subsequently, the Prime Minister met with Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft. The talks were highly strategic, concentrating on the integration of Microsoft’s cutting-edge generative AI technologies across various sectors of the Indian economy, including healthcare, education, and governance. A key point of discussion was Microsoft’s continued investment in India’s data centre infrastructure, which is crucial for supporting the country’s rapid cloud adoption and the anticipated surge in AI-driven workloads. Nadella reportedly assured the Prime Minister of increased investment to facilitate the AI transformation, directly supporting the Digital India mission.
The final, and perhaps most critical, engagement was with Lip-bu Tan, the CEO of Intel. Given the global race for semiconductor self-sufficiency, this meeting focused directly on accelerating India’s ambitions in chip manufacturing and design. Intel’s commitment is highly anticipated under India’s robust Semiconductor Mission, which offers substantial fiscal incentives for establishing fabrication units. The conversation covered the potential for Intel to expand its design and engineering footprint, alongside exploring the feasibility of establishing a state-of-the-art chip manufacturing facility in the country. Such an investment would be transformative, reducing India’s dependence on foreign supplies and solidifying its position in the global supply chain.
The close succession of these meetings highlights the government’s proactive approach to attracting top-tier technology partners. By engaging directly with the leaders of these multinational corporations, PM Modi sought to secure commitments that would not only boost FDI figures but also ensure that India remains at the forefront of digital innovation and high-tech manufacturing, significantly enhancing job prospects and bolstering the national technological base.
Click here to add News18 as your preferred news source on Google. December 09, 2025, 20:31 IST
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