A key leader of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation praised India's growth story, saying other nations should learn from India's successful digital public infrastructure model to help them reach their healthcare and other development goals. Speaking to PTI on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, the foundation's president of global development, Christopher J Elias, stated that AI can help speed the achievement of global development goals, but technology must be utilized responsibly and with due regard for ethics and rules.

 

"In India, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has worked in a wide range of sectors and areas including health, agriculture, water and sanitation, digital public infrastructure and inclusive financial services. We will continue to work in these areas," he added.

 

Elias said the Foundation's oldest field office is in India and that is over 20 years old, as per economic times.

 

"We work very closely with the central government and many state governments there on some of the very important issues. We work particularly closely in states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar on maternal health and newborn child health issues, we work in Odisha on issues related to water sanitation, agriculture development and improving lifecycles related," he added.

 

Elias stated that it is very thrilling to see such a strong presence from India. He also remembered that, as G20 Chair last year, India brought together the global community to discuss how to best accelerate progress toward the United Nations' sustainable development goals.

 

"That I think is going to be talked about a lot here at Davos," he said adding, "One area of particular accomplishment in India that I think can be a good model for the world to follow is digital public infrastructure that has helped achieve a lot of progress in financial services, health etc," Elias said.