Microsoft founder Bill Gates rated India as 'A' observing success of malnutrition programs

Great news for India! The billionaire industrialist and philanthropist Bill Gates has declared he would rate India as ‘A’ after observing its effort to eradicate malnutrition.

In an interview with PTI, he mentioned, "Well, India, for its income level, acknowledges that some of these nutritional indicators are weaker than it would like. That kind of frankness and focus on it, I think is very impressive."

He further said that, India is very much focused about such issues than any other government.

He exclaimed with delight,"It's using the public feeding system and the Midday Meal System to try and get fortified foods out, but it's still a huge opportunity," Gates said. "I would give India an A for focus on the problem."

He briefly described that, “Solving malnutrition or even just reducing it has two gigantic benefits. One is that a well-nourished kid is far less likely, twice as less likely to die as they face various disease episodes like diarrhoea or pneumonia during their early years. But, the second thing, which is absolutely gigantic, is that because in those early years, your malnutrition, deficits, you can't recover.”

The co-chair and Board Member of the Gates Foundation told that, India is a great example where if we can reduce malnutrition, it literally helps drive meaningful economic growth.

Bill Gates said that, in the next five years, a lot will be learnt in India that will provide information for other programs globally.

He added that most of those vaccines are produced in India. "We’ve collaborated with our partners to increase production volumes and reduce costs. This has enabled GAVI to provide vaccines essentially for free to developing countries.”

Gavi, established in 2000, is an international organization focused on enhancing access to new and underutilized vaccines for children in the world's poorest countries. He noted that during the pandemic, many countries that had been borrowing money cut back on health spending.

Gates is very hopeful about India’s progress and told that taking together the latest innovations, including in the nutrition areas, there's every reason to think India can continue the health improvement, including reducing maternal death and childhood death.