Moneycontrol | Bill Gates says meeting PM Modi was the highlight of his India trip

Mar 04,2023

Bill Gates met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 3 - a meeting he called the highlight of his trip to India. Over the last few days, the Microsoft billionaire has interacted with several high-profile personalities in India, including cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, Wipro chairman Rishad Premji, Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra, YouTuber Prajakta Koli and union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Smriti Irani and Ashwini Vaishnaw, among others.

But Friday’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the highlight of his week-long trip, said Bill Gates.

In a post published on his blog, Gates said that PM Modi was generous with his time and their discussion revolved around healthcare, climate change and digitization in India.

“India has an amazing ability to manufacture lots of safe, effective, and affordable vaccines, some of them supported by the Gates Foundation. Vaccines produced in India have saved millions of lives during the pandemic and prevented other diseases around the world,” wrote Bill Gates, noting that he and PM Modi have kept in touch since the pandemic struck and have spoken about Covid vaccines in the past.

The Microsoft co-founder praised India’s open-source platform Co-WIN through which millions of Indians could schedule vaccine appointments and received digital certificates once vaccination was completed.

“Prime Minister Modi believes that Co-WIN is a model for the world, and I agree,” he wrote.

Bill Gates also spoke about how the government was able to transfer emergency digital payments to 300 million people, including 200 million women, during the pandemic, thanks to its investment in creating a digital ID system (Aadhaar) and creating innovative platforms for digital banking. The Gati Shakti programme he called another great example of how digital technology can help governments work better.

“We also discussed India's G20 Presidency this year. It’s an excellent opportunity to highlight how innovations developed in India can benefit the world, and to help other countries adopt them,” wrote Gates.

The two also discussed education, healthcare and climate change. “My conversation with the Prime Minister left me more optimistic than ever about the progress that India is making in health, development, and climate,” Gates said in conclusion to his blog post.