Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and renowned philanthropist, recently joined Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath for the inaugural episode of the new podcast series "People by WTF." The two entrepreneurs delved into a wide range of subjects, including artificial intelligence, the capitalism versus socialism debate, and Mr. Gates' enduring connection with India.
"I've had a fantastic relationship with India starting with the Microsoft experience where we hired some very smart IT graduates, brought them to Seattle. Later they go back, create a development center for us that's now in four locations, 25,000 people. Of course, a lot of the amazing people I work with and have so much fun in the Microsoft success are part of the team who have been hired from India," Gates shared with Kamath.
He went on to praise Microsoft's current CEO, Satya Nadella, for his exceptional leadership. "Top of that list is Satya, who now is doing a great job as CEO. In my digital first career, the connection to India was fun and made a huge difference in what the company was able to achieve. It was during that time that I was kind of learning, oh wow, India is such a study in contrast, first class in so many ways, but still a lot of poverty and challenges."
Beyond his work with Microsoft, Mr. Gates discussed the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's significant investment in India. "Vaccines were missing and that is a crime that these diarrhoea, and rotavirus vaccines were being given to rich kids. So I learnt about the Serum Institute of India, making cheap vaccines. We had to see how we as foreigners form partnerships and not come across in the wrong way. It was a heck of a learning curve." He revealed that India is the second largest recipient of funding from the foundation, with nearly a billion dollars invested.