Prime Minister Narandra Modi awaits a grand reception from the Indian diaspora in the US, when he will attend the 69th annual session of UN General Assembly in New York in September this year. He will also meet President Barack Obama in the White House.
Modi's US trip in September will be his first visit to the country after he became the Prime Minister of India on 26 May.
For the past few weeks, a hunt for a suitable venue, with a capacity to accommodate 60,000 to 80,000 audiences, to fete Modi is on in the US by associations of Indian-origin US citizens.
The most desired congregation venues - Yankee Stadium in New York with a maximum capacity with 60,000 audiences, and Giants Stadium in New Jersey that can accommodate 80,000 people, are already been booked till September last week, when Modi is slated to visit the US. Modi's itinerary to the US is yet to be announced.
One of the organisers of Modi's felicitation programme, Bharat Barai, said that Modi's public reception programme is expected to be organised on 28 September.
"Given Modi's popularity, we are expecting thousands of people to attend the historic reception hosted in his honour," PTI quoted Barai.
Preparations were on to organise a massive public rally of Indian diaspora at national-level to honour Modi in New Jersey/New York area, said president of Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP) Chandrakant Patel.
"OFBJP is working along with the leaders of all prominent Indian and ethnic organisations locally and at the national level to make this historic event a grand success in which about 1,00,000 people are expected to attend," Patel said.
In the US, there are about 2.81 million Indian Americans. According to American Community Survey of 2010 data, Indian-origin people are the third largest Asian ancestry group in India after Chinese Americans and Filipino Americans.
New York City has highest Indian American population. New Jersey, Connecticut, Pike County, Pennsylvania cities are also home to large number of Indian Americans in the US. Direct flights to Indian destinations are being operated from New York City Metropolitan Area by airline carriers including Air India, Jet Airways and United Airways.
To give a voice for Indian American community in the US several Indian origin Americans like Bobby Jindal have entered American politics. Jindal is currently the Louisiana governor and vice-chairman of the Republican Governors Association. He is first US governor from Indian diasporas.
