Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in NYC: This is India's century

NEW YORK, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed over 18,000 live spectators and remote viewers around the world Sunday morning, sharing his vision for twenty-first century India and the world.

"India used to be known as a country of snakes and snake charmers," Modi proclaimed, adding, "It is only because of [the Indian-American community] that we have made such a huge progress."

"Some say, this is India's century. India has the potential ... The time has come. India is the world's youngest country and its most ancient culture. [It] has something that other countries in the world don't."

That something, in Modi's eyes, is the Indian people. Rather than a faceless commodity, Indians and Indian Americans are vital contributors to the global community -- an undeniable truth, as Modi pointed out, in a post IT revolution world.

"If you want human resources and low-cost production, then India is your destination."

"It's a signal from the Indian-American community that it has 'arrived,'" Devesh Kapur, the director of the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania, told Time Magazine when asked about national and international interest in Modi.

"There's a part of it which is about Modi, the rock-star politician. But it's also a signal by the community to the politicians here in the U.S. to take them seriously."

Modi will be in Washington D.C. Monday night to dine with President Obama before meeting with him again Tuesday in the Oval Office.