Melinda Gates: Bill & Melinda Gates’ co-founder visited Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, on Wednesday in Lucknow to explore strengthening technological collaboration in the areas of health, nutrition, and agriculture.

Melinda French Gates says ‘If you invest in women, they invest in everyone else’

She said that the state of Uttar Pradesh was an inspiration to the rest of India and the globe for its efforts in the areas of women’s empowerment, financial inclusion, nutrition, and health security.

The UP CM had extended an invitation to Melinda and her employees to attend the next UP Global Investors Summit, which will be held in Lucknow from February 10–12 of the following year.

Melinda praised the treatment and prevention of illnesses like encephalitis carried out in UP in recent years, according to a news statement. She also lauded the vaccine campaign, stating that the rest of the world should take note of how immunisation was carried out in UP despite the state’s enormous and dense population, according to the authorities.

Regarding health security, Adityanath acknowledged that there was still much work to be done, with the lack of qualified nurses and paramedics posing the biggest obstacle.

The chief minister referred to the outcomes of Mission Shakti in Uttar Pradesh for women’s empowerment and stated the programme concentrated on three dimensions: safety, respect, and self-reliance.

Melinda Gates: More from Lucknow

Discussing the foundation’s deep ties with UP, Melinda said, “We have been working here for a long time in the field of health and social security. It is a matter of happiness that we are able to provide facilities to the weakest and last person of the society.”

According to Melinda, the efforts of the UP government in the areas of health security, financial inclusion, nutrition, education, women empowerment etc. were inspiring and that UP is a model not only for India, but for the whole world.