VIDEO: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi picks up trash from beach

Nirmala Joseph, Correspondent

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in the coastal town of Mahabalipuram for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, took some time off from his busy schedule on Saturday morning and cleaned the beach by picking up plastic waste littered there.

"Keep public places neat and tidy,” Modi tweeted later.

"Plogging at a beach in Mamallapuram this morning. It lasted for over 30 minutes,” he said as he posted a video in his Twitter handle.

Modi, who is staying at the Taj Fishermen’s Cove hotel, took a morning walk along the shores, barefooted for about 30 minutes. He picked up the litter from the beach, put them in a cover and handed over his "collections” to hotel staff Jayaraj.

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"Refreshing walk and exercises in Mamallapuram, along the scenic coast…Let us also ensure we remain fit and healthy,” he said.

”Also handed over my ‘collection’ to Jeyaraj, who is a part of the hotel staff”, he said.

On Friday Modi walked around the Shore Temple in typical Tamil costume with Xi.

As the summit went into a second day, one man in focus of the local media is the official Indian translator, Sridharan Madhusudhanan, a Tamil officer on the Indian Foreign Service.

Madhusudhanan is an authority in both Mandarin and Tamil. He wrote the first direct translation book from Chinese to Tamil language, called Vaari Choodinum Paarppavar Illai (Even if I adorn;there’s none to behold) and first book to introduce Chinese language in Tamil.

Apart from MBA from Colorado State University and studying Chinese Language at the Beijing Institute of Economic Management, he studied Master of Human Resource Management (MHRM), Master of Public

Administration (MA Pub Ad), Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism and Under Graduation in Science in India.

He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1996 and was posted twice at the Embassy of India in Beijing, serving as the Head of Political Section, Head of Cultural Section, Spokesperson of the Embassy and Project Manager of the new Embassy project.

Sridharan also served as the Consul for Trade and Investment at the Indian Consulate in Hong Kong, and as Number 2 at the Indian High Commission in Fiji Islands. At the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, he had previously served as the officer in-charge for the

E-Governance and Information Systems Management and recently headed the Division for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

He assumed his responsibilities as Head of Press, Information and Culture Wing and the Spokesperson of the Embassy of India in Washington in February 2013.