India is the Apple of Tim Cook’s Eye: The CEO Basks in the Attention of Country’s Elite — From Modi to Madhuri
- The tech mogul was in India to open the first Apple Store in Mumbai, followed by the second one in New Delhi.
From trying Mumbai’s favorite street food — Vada Pav — to hobnobbing with Bollywood celebrities, interacting with tech entrepreneurs, and meeting lawmakers including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Apple CEO Tim Cook’s India visit has taken social media by storm. Photos and tweets of the tech mogul with Modi, B-Town A-listers and his visits to several institutions in Mumbai using his company’s products have been doing the rounds.
Cook was in India to inaugurate the first Apple Store in Mumbai, followed by the second one in Delhi, scheduled to open tomorrow (April 20). According to a company press release, “Apple BKC is one of the most energy-efficient Apple Store locations in the world, operationally carbon neutral, running on 100 percent renewable energy.”Videos posted on Twitter showed Cook “waving to customers and opening the store’s doors as employees clapped and cheered,” as BBC reported. He greeted customers who viand the store and posed for many selfies as well.
On his meeting with Modi, the company noted that the American executive “committed to even further deepening of the company’s business there,” and “urged the government to support further expansion across Apple’s component ecosystem and supply chain, the need to improve labor skills and more.”
He also met with several young trailblazers who are using his company’s products to enhance their work. In Delhi, he made time to check out the Lodhi Art District and the National Crafts Museum, as well as the Indian School of Design & Innovation.
There was also a meeting with badminton champions Saina Nehwal, Srikanth Kidambi, Chirag Shetty, and Parupalli Kashyap and coach Pullela Gopichand, where they discussed how Apple Watch has helped them in their training modules.
Earlier in Mumbai, Cook visited Mukesh Ambani’s mega-mansion Antilla for a business meeting and reportedly met other top industrialists, including Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran. He also met with singer-songwriter Mali, who showed him “all the ways you’re using Apple products to create music—from songwriting with iPhone to developing unique beats on MacBook Pro. I loved the sneak peek of your new song in Spatial Audio!”
However, the most viral photo of Cook’s India visit was with the “Dhak Dhak” girl Madhuri Dixit, as she introduced him to Vada Pav. Besides her, several Bollywood celebrities met Cook at the Mumbai store launch event, including A.R. Rahman, Raveena Tandon, Shahid Kapoor, Suraj Nambiar, Mouni Roy, and Armaan Malik, among others.