A record crowd gets ready to welcome Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to celebrate Indian-American success at “Howdy, Modi!”  Over 50,000 registered; Free parking onsite at the stadium

A history-making audience of over 50,000 Indian-Americans has registered to turn up at NRG Stadium for the “Howdy Modi” community summit on Sep 22 to see the visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Filling the giant stadium to capacity, they will come to celebrate the tremendous success of Indian-Americans in the US and the deepening US-India economic and political ties.

The crowd turnout is expected to be the largest for any Indian Prime Minister to address in North America and the largest for a democratically elected foreign leader in America. In expectation for this, the Texas India Forum will be providing free parking onsite at the stadium for all attendees.

The event, titled “Shared Dreams, Bright Future”, will showcase the strength and clout of the Indian American community, dubbed as “model” immigrants in the US as they are considered by policy experts to be the most highly educated and successful community in America.

“The Indian-Americans are not simply just an educated and wealthy community today but have fast become an organized, powerful voting bloc with a unified voice, with national political and policy aspirations. The impact of the community today is palpable in American politics and business,” said Gitesh Desai, spokesperson for the event.

According to Pew Research, median annual household income for Indian Americans in 2010 was
$88,000, much higher than for all Asian Americans ($66,000) and all U.S. households ($49,800). 68% of
India-born immigrants have college degrees. Indian-Americans also form the second largest group
of physicians after non-Hispanic whites (3.9%) according to the 1990 survey of Pew Research.
“The Indian-American community has arrived,” according to Devesh Kapur, the director of the Center for
the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania.

“There’s a part of it which is about Modi, the rock-star politician. But it’s also a signal by the community
to the politicians here in the U.S. to take them seriously,” according to his interview to Time magazine.
“The economic impact of Indian-Americans has grown considerably in the last few decades as they have
become a major force in technology and innovation, financial services, banking, oil & gas, energy,
chemicals, and pipelines. In addition to being leading business leaders and job creators, Indian-
Americans are also playing vital roles in medicine, philanthropy, arts, media, education, and space.

The rise of Indian-Americans today is intricately woven into the rise of America,” said Desai.
And this is what will be celebrated at the “Howdy Modi” event which reflects an extraordinary strong
community involvement with more than 1000 volunteers and 650 Welcome Partner organizations from
across the United States. The “Howdy, Modi!” event has been broadly supported by organizations
representing various communities in India as well as leading social service organizations, charities,
university alumni groups, professional societies, and religious organizations.

Doors for the event will open at 7:00 a.m. and the program will begin at 10:00 a.m. sharp.
For more information, please visit http://www.howdymodi.org.