Indian innovation key to solving health, agriculture, climate issues: Bill Gates

Indian innovations across the spectrum are fantastic and are the key to solving problems in the field of health, agriculture, gender and climate, Microsoft Co-founder and philanthropist, Bill Gates, said in the national Capital on Thursday.

Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), who is on an India tour, was speaking at IIT-Delhi on innovations for public good.

“I am looking at innovators in India that can help with all kinds of problems, starting with health, but also agriculture, gender and climate.

“Indian innovation gets stronger all the time. It is a fascinating time and the need for innovation to deal with many different challenges is greater than ever. But the pace of innovations is also rising to meet the challenge,” he told the gathering.

The tech mogul advised students to work towards “achieving social equality” along with making a financial impact in their future roles.

“We have many problems in the world, and only by taking that point of view can we shape innovations to improve the world as much as possible,” Gates said.

He said the Gates Foundation worked along with Indian manufacturers to bring several vaccines to India, which were once available only in rich countries, and that includes rotavirus vaccine, pneumococcal and measles vaccine.

Gates said more has to be done for TB that is the number one infectious disease killing millions globally.

Beyond infections, he also said that it was important to focus on malnutrition and anaemia, which will work towards improving the physical and mental health of mothers and children.

The billionaire also hailed India’s digital public infrastructure.

“India leads in digital public infrastructure. No country is able to take government benefits and get them out more efficiently and effectively to citizens like India can,” he said.