Prime Minister Narendra Modi is assured a raucous reception when he addresses a crowd from a rotating stage this evening at Madison Square Garden.
Here is your 10-point cheat-sheet to this story:
- The famous New York venue is packed with 18,000 people. Performances so far by Gujarati folk dancers; Kavita Krishnamurthy sang "I Love My India."
- The event has cost 1.5 million dollars - the funds were raised by different groups of NRIs and Indian Americans.
- The PM's speech will also be broadcast on a big screen in Times Square.
- The audience at Madison Square will include US lawmakers, Indian celebrities and prominent Indian-American business people are due to attend.
- Mr Modi will speak from a rotating platform measuring 15 metres (yards) across. He will speak in Hindi, but is expected to give some remarks in English, according to event organizer, the Indian-American Community Foundation.
- The organization is billing the event as one of the largest receptions ever held for a foreign head of state in the US.
- The reception today also reflects the growing clout of the 2.8 million Indian-Americans, one of the wealthiest diaspora communities in the US which can help the PM spur trade and foreign investment in India
- On Monday and Tuesday, President Barack Obama will host the PM at the White House.
- The PM was shunned for years by the US, which denied him a visa in 2005 for his alleged role in the communal riots that left more than 1,000 people dead in Gujarat in 2002 during his first term as Chief Minister.
- Since he emerged as the front-runner for the country's top job with a high-glitz campaign, he has been courted by world leaders.
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