Mark Zuckerberg and India Prime Minister Narendra Modi change their Facebook profile pictures for Digital India

Facebook chief executive officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg has introduced a profile picture option on the social networking site featuring the Indian tricolour flag, as a gesture of extending support for Digital India. The Internet entrepreneur and computer programmer also chose to include the Indian tricolour in his own Facebook profile picture. Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister (PM) of India, followed Zuckerberg’s footsteps to help promote his initiative.

This step was taken by Zuckerberg before his meeting with Prime Minister Modi on Sunday. Zuckerberg also made a status update along with the photo, that stated, "I changed my profile picture to support Digital India, the Indian government's effort to connect rural communities to the internet and give people access to more services online.” While thanking Zuckerberg for his kind gesture, PM Modi informed the Facebook CEO that he also changed his profile picture on Facebook for Digital India.

The Digital India initiative by Modi aims at connecting thousands of Indian villages to the Internet. This in turn will help maximise technology investments in India. PM Modi visited Google headquarters in Mountain View, California on Monday and met CEO Sundar Pichai to further cement the said initiative. Modi also laid emphasis on connecting with the Indian diaspora community in Silicon Valley.

PM Modi is on his second trip to the U.S. He visited the Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California on Sunday, giving Facebook the much-needed support it needs to expand its reach in India, according to The Guardian.

While addressing the audience at the Facebook headquarters in California, both PM Modi and Zuckerberg reminisced about their past and the hardships they had to face before finally tasting sweet success. Zuckerberg even mentioned his spiritual trip to India which he said played a significant role in reaffirming Facebook’s goal to connect people from different parts of the world.

Mark Zuckerberg and India Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged their Facebook followers to support Digital India by visiting fb.com/supportdigitalindia.

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