Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be among a dozen world leaders who will attend a global festival on September 27 in the sprawling Central Park in New York that will feature music icon Jay Z and many other big stars.
Apart from PM Modi, leaders such as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg and Nepalese Prime Minister Sushil Koirala would attend the 2014 Global Citizen Festival.
The organisers said the dignitaries will participate in the festival to "voice tangible commitments that could affect the lives of 50 million people."
Ban Ki-moon said he will take part in the festival to "thank thousands of young people for helping us to fight hunger, protect the planet and promote the rights of women and girls."
PM Modi is expected to reach New York on September 26 and will address the UN General Assembly the next day, giving his first global speech to an audience of nearly 200 world leaders and foreign ministers.
After a grand community reception at the Madison Square Garden on September 28, PM Modi will head to Washington for his crucial bilateral meeting with US President Barack Obama.
For the festival, the world leaders will join a star- studded line up of musicians, celebrity hosts including Jackman and Alba, and 60,000 Global Citizens on the Great Lawn of New York City's Central Park.
The free-ticketed concert will call for accelerated progress in the areas of vaccines, education and sanitation.