Co-chair and Trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr. Bill Gates, called on the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today. The discussion centered around clean energy initiatives, financial inclusion, sanitation, health and nutrition. Mr. Bill Gates was appreciative of the work done in India in the field of renewable energy and emphasized to the need to lower the cost of clean energy to the level of hydrocarbons.
Mr. Gates said that there has been enormous progress on financial inclusion and offered support to strengthen the efforts in this direction. The issue of leveraging existing postal infrastructure to create Hybrid Payment Banks across the country was also discussed.
On the issue of health, Mr. Gates appreciated the work done, particularly the introduction of new vaccines. The Swachh Bharat campaign and the Government's efforts to improve sanitation were discussed at length.