New Delhi: Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates has commended the progress India is making in fields like health, development and climate and said the country is showing what is possible when investment is made in innovation.
He also praised India for its “amazing ability to manufacture lots of safe, effective, and affordable vaccines, some of them supported by the Gates Foundation” and said they saved millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic and prevented other diseases around the world.
Gates, who is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday during his trip to India.
Modi tweeted on Saturday, “Delighted to meet Bill Gates and have extensive discussions on key issues. His humility and passion to create a better as well as more sustainable planet are clearly visible.”
Gates said in a write-up, “At a time when the world has so many challenges, it’s inspiring to visit a dynamic and creative place like India.”
Although he didn’t travel much over the past three years because of the pandemic, Bill Gates said he has been in touch with Modi, especially about developing Covid vaccines and investing in India’s health systems.
Besides producing new lifesaving tools, India also excels at delivering them — its public health system has delivered more than 2.2 billion doses of Covid vaccines — Gates said, adding that it created an open-source platform in Co-WIN, which
allowed people to schedule billions of vaccine appointments and delivered digital certifications for those who were vaccinated.
“Prime Minister Modi believes that Co-WIN is a model for the world, and I agree,” he said.
He noted that India transferred emergency digital payments to 300 million people, including 200 million women, during the pandemic.