india

Updated: Nov 18, 2019 20:44 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates and discussed the work his foundation has been undertaking in India for underprivileged people. Gates, who co-chairs the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is on a three-day visit to the country to review the work of his organisation in rural areas.

“Wonderful meeting with @BillGates. It is always a delight to interact with him on various subjects. Through his innovative zeal and grassroot level work, he is passionately contributing towards making our planet a better place,” the prime minister said in a tweet.

In the last decade, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been working tirelessly in areas of health-care, sanitation, agriculture and financial services for underprivileged people in India.

On Sunday, Gates had said global economies needed to drastically reduce carbon emissions to tackle the challenges posed by climate change. He had also interacted with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and had praised the way the state was gearing up to deal with climate change.

“Young people are waking up to climate change but unfortunately the people who will suffer the most due to the impact of climate change in growing economies will be the poorest---the farmers and the people in the lower end of the pyramid,” Gates had said.

“At a time when we have to increase productivity, climate change is making it far difficult. Understanding how the changing weather is affecting our crops and productivity and how we can adapt to that -- requires best work in agriculture statistics including use of new tools,” Gates said in his address at the 8th global conference on agri-statistics in the national capital on Monday.

Referring to India’s soil health card, he said the soil quality data helps farmers determine what fertilizers to use. However, there are opportunities to add additional data to the existing one and make a detailed soil mapping. “Better soil, better information and better statistics will help minimize the damage of climate change,” Gates said.