Bill Gates, Co-chair and Trustee of the Gates Foundation, visited the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India to meet Prof Ajay K Sood to understand priorities and explore further collaborations.
During his visit, Prof. Sood gave an overview of the work of the Office of PSA’s wide-ranging engagements, including the National Missions on One Health, Quantum Technologies, Livelihood, Green Hydrogen, One Nation One Subscription etc. The discussion focused majorly on priority engagements of One Health Mission, Waste to Wealth Mission with the Foundation.
Mr Gates appreciated the focus on science and technology initiatives. He expressed interest in supporting the Government of India’s efforts on the upcoming One Health Mission and the power of environmental surveillance for disease control. He stressed the need for innovations to address animal health, disease modelling and novel diagnostics technologies. He further emphasised the opportunity for India to support both domestic and global challenges in these areas.
Mr Gates was accompanied by Dr Trevor Mundel, President of Global Health, Mr Hari Menon, Country Director-India, and Mr Harish Iyer, Deputy Director, Digital & Health Innovation. They met Dr (Mrs) Parvinder Maini, Scientific Secretary, Office of the PSA; Dr Preeti Banzal; Adviser/Scientist ‘G’; Dr Monoranjan Mohanty, Adviser/Scientist ‘G’; Dr Ketaki Bapat, Adviser/Scientist ‘G’; Dr Sindura Ganapathi, Visiting PSA Fellow; Dr Sapna Poti, Director, Strategic Alliances Division and other officials.