Prime Minister Mr Modi delivering his statement to the Media in the Joint Press Briefing with the President of United States of America Mr Barack Obama in New York on September 28, 2015

Perhaps the primary objective of the prime ministerial visit can be found in a backgrounder on the company’s website where it explains: “Tesla Powerwall is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery designed to store energy at a residential level for load shifting, backup power and self-consumption of solar power generation. Powerwall consists of Tesla’s lithium-ion battery pack, liquid thermal control system and software that receives dispatch commands from a solar inverter. The unit mounts seamlessly on a wall and is integrated with the local grid to harness excess power and give customers the flexibility to draw energy from their own reserve.”

What Powerwall does is remove the need for the hugely capital intensive power plants, environmental costs and damage and expensive distribution network because it stores power in the Powerwall generated from solar panels on the roof. What mobile phones are to telephony, Powerwall could potentially be to electricity. It makes electricity more personalized. Priced right, this can transform India’s energy needs as it can around the world.

Currently, Powerwall is priced at USD 3,500 for 10 kWh and USD 3,000 for 7 kWh units without the inverter and installation. While a large number of Indians can afford this but if the eventual objective of the Modi Government is to transform rural electrification then the price needs to come down significantly.

Mr Modi’s town hall style meeting with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was perhaps closer to his larger socio-cultural and political goals of keeping his vast following on social media abreast of the going-on in his Government in the face of creeping doubts over its performance so far. Mr Modi’s interaction with Mr Zuckerberg was one more instance of the prime minister’s ability to strike an instant rapport with his audience. What brought the house down was his emotional reference to the sacrifice that his 91-year-old mother made to raise him and his siblings. He broke down while reminiscing his childhood and its hardships. He was responding to a question from Zuckerberg about his parents and personal life. In the 31-year-old Zuckerberg, the 65-year old prime minister appears to have found a muse whose youth can only help Mr Modi expand his global appeal.