Modi highlights India's economic prowess in Q&A with Facebook's Zuckerberg:

MENLO PARK -- When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sat down with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Sunday morning to answer questions his message was clear: India's economy is too big for Silicon Valley to ignore.

"India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world today," Modi said in Hindi to an estimated thousand people, who packed Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters. "My dream is to become a $20 trillion economy."

Modi, who wraps up his historic visit to California's high-tech region today, was greeted by fans chanting his name, but also by protestors outside concerned about digital privacy, gay rights and his role in the 2002 anti-Muslim riots that killed more than 1,000 people in Gujarat.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mark Zuckerberg host a town hall meeting at Facebook headquarters in San Mateo, Calif., on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2015. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group) ( Jim Gensheimer )

While many of those questions remained unanswered, Modi emphasized India's economic prowess and the importance of social media.

He noted that the 1.3 billion people in India and his government's push to make the country more business friendly was among India's economic strengths.

It's a message that tech companies including Facebook have heard before. Facebook has 132 million monthly active users in India, its second-largest market behind the United States, according to the social media company.

Google on board

The social media giant has been trying to attract more advertisers in the region and rolled out a version of Facebook that works in developing countries with weak Wi-Fi connection. Facebook has also been offering free basic Internet services in India through an effort called Internet.org.

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Some Indian companies, however, pulled out of Facebook's Internet.org initiative because they fear it threatens net neutrality -- a principle to keep the Internet open and free -- because the social media giant limits the free Web service to certain websites such as Facebook and Wikipedia.

Much like Zuckerberg, Modi is also pushing for more Internet access in his own country through a campaign called "Digital India," which is also aimed at improving government services through technology and growing Indian electronics manufacturing.

Google is on board with Modi's efforts, announcing Sunday that it would set up high-speed Wi-Fi at about 400 of India's railway stations, which the tech firm called one of the largest Wi-Fi projects in the world.

For Zuckerberg, a visit to an Indian temple years ago also helped spark inspiration for the company during it's early days after speaking to Apple's co-founder Steve Jobs. Modi, likewise, is also a fan of social media with more than 30 million people "liking" his Facebook page.

"The strength of social media today is that it can tell governments where they're going wrong, it can stop them from moving in the wrong direction...," Modi said.

Crowds of protest

But across from Facebook's offices, where its thumbs up sign was adorned in a colorful pattern to mark the prime minister's visit, a large crowd of protesters fighting for religious freedom held up signs that read "condemn, not condone India's Modi." A mannequin dressed in an orange jumpsuit with a photo of the prime minister's face stood out among Menlo Park's busy streets as cars trickled into Facebook.

"(Modi) may not pay attention, but by 2020 we want to have a referendum in Punjab under the UN that separates us out of India," said Jagjeet Singh, a San Jose resident who is part of the religious minority Sikhs. "They're just projecting that India is very welcoming but it's not true."

Singh said that the group's Facebook page Sikhs for Justice is blocked in India, making it difficult to spread the nonprofit's message in the country.

Meanwhile, Modi also showed support for women's rights and shared stories about growing up in a poor family where he sold tea at India's railway stations and his family did chores at their neighbor's house to make ends meet.

"It's hard to imagine a tea seller has become the leader of the world's biggest democracy," he said.

Zuckerberg was among a series of tech titans who met the prime minister over the weekend, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Tesla CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Modi is also scheduled to attend a showcase of Indian startups and meet with Gov. Jerry Brown in San Jose to discuss climate change, renewable energy and the digital economy before his speech at the SAP Center tonight. About 18,000 people are expected to attend the event.

Modi is the first Indian head of state to visit the Bay Area since the 1970s.