In September 2019, Bill Gates presented Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India with a prize on behalf of his charity, The Gates Foundation, for the work of the Indian leader to improve the sewer.
Followed by a disruption.
Three award -winning Nobel Peace Prize wrote to Mr Gates, arguing that Mr Modi, who was given the award on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, did not deserve recognition because democratic and human rights had been eroded. “This is especially worrying for us, as your founding task is to keep life and fight inequalities,” Laureates wrote.
The rage did not do little to prevent Mr Gates and Mr Modi, who have developed an unusually warm and high profile relationship in the last decade.
They have met several times and Mr Gates was only free for Mr Modi. Last year, shortly before the national elections, Mr Gates sat with the Prime Minister for an extensive television exchange that Mr Modi used to burn his image as a technology leader.
The relationship between Mr Gates and Mr Modi, according to the observers, former institution officials and critics, attributes benefits to both men. Mr Gates is about to visit India next week, his third visit in three years and will meet with government leaders and others to discuss India’s innovations and progress.
“This trip will give me the opportunity to see what works, what is changing and what will happen – for India and the Foundation,” writes Gates, his personal blog.
India is central to Mr Gates’ charity work, which makes it necessary for the Gates Foundation to remain on the good side of a government that has broken into organizations supported by foreign donors. With the huge number of Indians in poverty, global development goals cannot be achieved without progress in India.
Gates’ continued access to India has become even more important as President Trump has withdrawn the United States from the World Health Organization and extracted the US Service for international development. Who, which supports a series of public health programs in India, is facing budget cuts after the United States exit. The Gates Foundation, a magnificent global public health and development, is one of its top donors who
For Mr Modi, an approval by Mr Gates – the very face of the computer era in many Indians – is one way to link Gates’ technological heritage to the digital economy defended by the Modi government, a pillar of “developed India” policy.
Mr Modi’s desire to make use of technology for development personally resonates with Mr Gates, given his deep faith in the power of innovation for progress, according to positions he has written in Gatesnotes and two former employees with immediate knowledge of the Foundation’s activities in India. They talked about the condition of anonymity to avoid adopting business relationships.
Representatives of the Gates and Gates Ventures Foundation, the charity’s private office, did not respond to comments. A representative of the Indian Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment.
Mr Gates has an abundant company in Mr Modi’s arms, with political and business leaders throughout the western charging of India as increasing geopolitical and economic power. In this way, many have closed their eyes for the Modi government’s attack on the country’s secular foundations, the demonization of the Muslim minority of India and the mute of civil society.
At the global level, recognition by Mr Gates brings Mr Modi’s attention to his development work and not to his Hindu nationalist policy. In a domestic market, the relationship has potential political benefits for Mr Modi.
“The technical departments of the Indian middle class have grown with the gates as this virtual figure,” said P. Sainath, an activist who is the founder and author of the Popular India Popular Archive, an independent digital media store. “Being good with Bill Gates does not hurt your image with these classes.”
Cheerlead
India’s links with Mr Gates and Microsoft, the company he founded, is running deep. Satya Nadella, Managing Director of Microsoft, is from India. In January, Mr Nadella announced plans to invest $ 3 billion in India, including artificial intelligence, to help Mr Modi’s further vision. Mr Gates has visited India more than twelve times in decades, including Microsoft’s chief executive.
The Seattle -based Gates Foundation, which began in 2000, opened the India Office in 2003 and has invested more in the country than anywhere other than the United States. This year, the Board of Directors of the Foundation will meet in India as it celebrates its 25th anniversary.
The Foundation has worked with successive Indian governments, supporting public health initiatives, such as the elimination of polio. It also works closely with the governments of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, two densely populated and poor Indian states. Mr Gates sat with previous Prime Ministers of India, including Mr Modi’s predecessor, Manmohan Singh. But the conversations were usually focused closely on the work of the Foundation in India.
Mr Gates hit him with Mr Modi during their first meeting in 2014, talking about twice as scheduled, according to a Gatesnotes. He said he was impressed with Mr Modi because of their common focus on public health, especially the sewer. The toilets were “high on the agenda, along with vaccines, bank accounts and health clinics”.
Open dedication and waste management remain huge challenges in India, a country of 1.4 billion people. Mr Modi’s government launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India mission) and until 2019 claimed to have built more than 100 million toilets. This was the project for which the Foundation gave him the award, drawing a reaction.
When Mr Gates traveled to India in 2023, he said Mr Modi was the “highlight” of his visit and praised him in the country’s digital payment system. “The country shows what is possible when investing in innovation,” he wrote in Gatesnotes.
Several people with the knowledge of the Foundation’s affairs said that some employees were frustrated by Mr Modi’s embrace of Mr Gates, arguing that the Foundation could pursue its goals and align with the goals of the government without becoming a cheerleader for Prime Minister Gates.
Mr Modi has also filled Mr Gates praise, saying that his government has assumed the know -how of the Foundation and the data based on data and evidence. In 2020, when they met virtually during the pandemic, Mr Modi encouraged the Foundation to “take the lead” in the analysis of health care and education required in a world after the bell.
Last March, three weeks before the election in which Mr Modi was looking for a third term, he called on Mr Gates to his official residence for a conversation about the country’s progress in the use of technology to improve the lives of Indians.
The government had planned to broadcast the entire meeting on national television, which reached over 650 million people. However, the electoral committee told the public broadcaster that this would give Mr Modi’s party an unfair advantage, according to a report by The Economic Times, an Indian newspaper. In the end, only parts of Mr Modi’s conversation with Mr Gates were aired on television, although it was fully broadcast on the website of the Bharatiya Janata party by Mr Modi.
A spokesman for the electoral committee said he had no information about the event. Rajiv Kumar, the Chief Commissioner of the Election at the time, did not respond to comments.
Tight handle to foreign donors
India has long cited foreign donors to achieve its goals. Organizations such as Amnesty International, Rotary International, the Red Cross, Oxfam, USAID and Greenpeace, as well as various United Nations and private groups such as the foundations of Ford, Rockefeller and Gates, provided funding to a booming local community of non -governmental organizations or workers.
However, as the Modi government has increasing more and more intolerance to any criticism or challenge, including abroad, Indian laws regulating the flow of foreign donors to domestic non -profit organizations have increased stricter and were more often implemented.
A year after his Prime Minister Modi in 2014, the government began a repression of foreign organizations, starting with Greenpeace. Many have begun to reduce their activities or take steps to ensure that their daily provisions are aligned with the goals of the government.
In 2017, the Indian Government accused the India Public Health Foundation, one of the country’s largest non -profit groups of abuse of funds, and a permit was revoked that allowed it to receive foreign contributions. The Gates Foundation was a great donor to the organization. Non -profit health returned its license in 2021.
The Gates Foundation has made it clear that its role is to help the Indian government meet its goals by providing expertise in priority areas, such as providing access to financial services for poor growth, public health and climate change.
The Foundation fell closely into this message after the dispute over the award presented to Mr Modi.
At that time, the Foundation stated that his award focused closely on the drainage targets.
Shortly afterwards, Mr. Gates met with Mr Modi in India. According to a press release then, Mr Gates reinforced his commitment to support the goals of the Indian government.
