Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a four-day visit to the United States, will join US President Joe Biden for a press conference on Thursday, said the White House. It is rare for the Prime Minister to hold press meets, having not addressed a single one since coming to power in 2014.
The White House said it understood that the event was a "big deal". "We are just grateful that Prime Minister Modi is participating in a press event at the end of the visit," White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said. "We think that's important and we're glad he thinks that's important too," he said.
The format of the Press Meet is such that the heads of the states take one question from the U.S. press and one from an Indian journalist, reported Reuters.
Interestingly, the White House press conferences with other world leaders are controlled affairs and they feature a limited number of questions. The U.S. officials also designate reporters beforehand from the American and foreign media for Biden and his guest to call upon.
Visa norms
In an exciting move for Indians in the US, the Biden administration has decided to ease visa norms for Indian skilled workers to enter or remain in the country, said reports. The move coincides with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state visit.
The US State Department is likely to announce the plan on Thursday, wherein a small number of Indians and other foreign workers on H-1B visas will be able to renew those visas in the US without having to travel abroad.
The pilot programme could benefit Indians the most as they are the most active users of the H-1B program. They amount to over 73% of the nearly 442,000 H-1B workers and the companies using the most H-1B workers include Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta.
"We all recognise that mobility of our people is a huge asset to us," Reuters quoted a U.S. official. "And so our goal is to approach that in a sort of multifaceted way. The State Department already has been working very hard to find creative ways to make changes to things."
More details, including which visa types would qualify or the timing of the pilot launch, have not yet been revealed by the State Department.