Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates launched the Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh (BPKK) along with Union Minister of Women and Child Development (WCD) and Textiles Smriti Irani on Monday in New Delhi.
The co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in his address said that the foundation would like to solve the problem of malnutition in India. "If there was one problem that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would like to solve in India it is the problem of malnutrition among women, expectant mothers and children. Solving this problem will bring about a dramatic change in the development of India and help the country to attain the SDGs," he said.
He added that there have been significant improvements in the Indian health system in the last decade. He said, "Improvements in Indian health system in the last decade are significant. There are specific disease programmes and vaccine coverage has improved substantially. It was in 2011 that India had its last case of Polio."
Earlier, in an exclusive interview to PTI, Gates, the world's richest person, specifically complimented India's Aadhaar identity system and the country's performance in the financial services and pharma sectors.
He said that India has the potential for "very rapid" economic growth over the next decade which will lift people out of poverty and allow the government to invest in health and education priorities in an "exciting way".
(With Inputs from ANI)
