S Jaishankar Meets Bill Gates, Exchange Books During Meeting

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. The two leaders, as they met, also exchanged books on Thursday.

In a post on X, Mr Jaishankar shared a post, showing him and Gates posing for a picture with their respective books.

"A good book exchange with @BillGates. And a great conversation," S Jaishankar wrote.

Bill Gates, who is on a visit to India, arrived in Odisha's capital, Bhubaneswar, on Tuesday.

Following his Odisha trip, Mr Gates arrived in the national capital, where he met Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

In an interview with ANI on Thursday, Mr Gates said that he is confident about the good future of India, adding that the country has witnessed strong improvement in a lot of the key areas.

When asked whether he is bullish or bearish on India's future, Bill Gates said, "I'm certainly bullish. The rate of improvement in a lot of the key areas is very strong. Everyone knows that in vaccines, India is the world's leader. So we are investing with our partners here to come up with lots of new vaccines. The diagnostic industry has also come out with some work after the pandemic so we are partnering there as well."

Lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership in introducing digital public infrastructure and transforming the country's rural economy, Bill Gates said that other countries can certainly benefit from the Indian leadership.

"This idea of digital connections that starts with Aadhaar and the bank accounts that you manage digitally, that's flourishing. And so we see in agriculture now that they are registering the farmers and giving them advance notice. And so Indian leadership is something other countries should benefit from," he said."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)