Mr. Gates stated in his “dispatch” that he had spent the past week in India learning about the ground-breaking work being done there in the fields of health, climate change, and other important subjects. It is motivating to travel to a vibrant and creative country like India at a time when the globe faces so many issues.
My conversation with Prime Minister @narendramodi left me more optimistic than ever about the progress that India is making in health, development, and climate. https://t.co/igH3ete4gD @PMOIndia
— Bill Gates (@BillGates) March 4, 2023
The meeting with the prime minister, according to Mr. Gates, was the highlight of his trip. “Prime Minister Modi and I have stayed in touch, especially regarding creating COVID-19 vaccines and investing in India’s health systems,” he added. India has a remarkable capacity for producing many safe, efficient, and economical vaccinations, some of which are funded by the Gates Foundation. India-made vaccines prevented other diseases from spreading worldwide and prevented millions of deaths during the pandemic.
He focused on India’s response to the pandemic, noting that the nation’s public health system had administered more than 2.2 billion doses of the COVID vaccine. “India excels at inventing innovative life-saving instruments and delivering them,” he continued. They developed Co-WIN, an open-source platform that provided digital certifications for those who have received vaccinations while enabling the scheduling of billions of vaccine appointments. The expansion of this platform is now supporting the universal immunisation campaign in India. I concur with Prime Minister Modi that Co-WIN should be a global model.
Bill Gates applauded India’s advancement in digital payments and noted that during the pandemic, “India was also able to deliver emergency digital payments to 300 million individuals, including 200 million women. This was only feasible because India prioritised financial inclusion, spending money on a biometric ID system (named Aadhaar) and developing cutting-edge digital banking platforms. It serves as a reminder that investing in financial inclusion is fantastic.
In his “dispatch,” Mr. Gates also discusses India’s accomplishments, including the PM Gatishakti Masterplan, the G20 chairmanship, education, innovation, the fight against disease, and the promotion of millets.
“My talk with the Prime Minister left me more hopeful than ever about the advancements India is making in health, development, and climate,” said Mr. Gates in his conclusion. The nation is serving as an example of what is possible when we fund innovation. I hope India keeps making strides and shares its innovations with the world.
