India has tackled big challenges, gives me hope for the future: Bill Gates

India gives him hope for the future at a time when the world is facing multiple crises, Microsoft co-founder and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-chair Bill Gates said in his blog “Gates Notes” on Wednesday (February 22).

“India as a whole gives me hope for the future. It’s about to become the world’s most populous country—which means you can’t solve most problems there without solving them at scale. And yet, India has proven it can tackle big challenges. The country eradicated polio, lowered HIV transmission, reduced poverty, cut infant mortality, and increased access to sanitation and financial services,” Gates wrote.

Gates said that he believed that with the right innovations and delivery channels the world is capable of making progress on lots of big problems at once. The usual responses he receives to such problems are like, “there isn’t enough time or money to solve both at the same time.” But India has proved all the responses wrong.

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“There is no better proof than the remarkable progress that India has accomplished,” Gates said in his blog. Prime Minister Narendra Modi  shared Gates’ blog after it was published in a newspaper in India.

‘World-leading approach to innovation’

The  Microsoft co-founder also stated that India has developed a world-leading approach to innovation that ensures solutions reach those who need them. When the rotavirus vaccine, which prevents the virus that causes many fatal cases of diarrhoea, was too expensive to reach every child, India decided to make the vaccine itself.

India worked with experts and funders, including the Gates Foundation, to build factories and create large-scale delivery channels to distribute the vaccines. By 2021, 83 per cent of one-year-olds had been inoculated against rotavirus, and these low-cost vaccines are now being used in other countries around the world, said Gates, who is coming to India next week to see the work being done by innovators and entrepreneurs.

While some of these innovators are working on breakthroughs that will help the world to mitigate the effects of climate change, like the work being done by Breakthrough Energy Fellow Vidyut Mohan and his team to turn waste into biofuels and fertilizers in remote agricultural communities.

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Others are finding new ways to help people adapt to a warmer world, such as IARI’s efforts to create more drought-tolerant crops. “I’m looking forward to seeing the progress that’s already underway by both the Gates Foundation’s and Breakthrough Energy’s amazing partners,” Gates wrote.

Progress in spite of constraints

Talking about its funding in India’s Indian Agricultural Research Institute, or IARI, in Pusa, Gates said, “The Gates Foundation joined hands with India’s public sector and CGIAR institutions to support the work of researchers at IARI. They found a new solution: chickpea varieties that have more than 10 per cent higher yields and are more drought-resistant. One variety is already available to farmers, and others are currently developing at the institute. As a result, India is better prepared to keep feeding its people and supporting its farmers even in a warming world. It’s no exaggeration to say that India’s agricultural future is growing right now in a field in Pusa.”

“One of the reasons why challenges like climate, hunger, and health seem insurmountable is that we don’t yet have all the tools to solve them. But I’m optimistic that one day soon we will, thanks in part to innovators like researchers at IARI,” he added.

Gates wrote that like every other country on the planet, India has limited resources. But it has shown us how the world can still make progress in spite of that constraint. “By collaborating and trying novel approaches, the public, private, and philanthropic sectors can turn limited resources into big pools of funding and knowledge that lead to progress. If we work together, I believe we can fight climate change and improve global health at the same time,” Gates wrote.