In September 2019, Bill Gates presented the award to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on behalf of the Gates Foundation, a charity.
The fuss continued.
The three Nobel Peace Prize winners wrote to Gates, claiming that Modi, who was awarded the award on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, was unworthy of recognition as Democrats and human rights were eroded under his control. “This is especially troublesome for us. The stated mission of your foundation is to protect lives and fight inequality,” the recipient wrote.
The anger has done little to stop Gates and Modi, who have formed unusually warm and prominent relationships over the past decade.
They have met several times, and Gates was merely a complement to Modi. Just before the national election last year, Gates hone his image of Modi as a tech-savvy leader.
Gates and Modi's relationship benefits both men, according to former foundation employees and critic observers. Gates is scheduled to visit India next week on his third visit in three years, where he will meet with government leaders and others to discuss India's innovations and progress.
“This trip gives us the opportunity to see what is working, what is changing and what is coming next for India and the Foundation,” Gates wrote in his personal blog, Gates Note.
India is at the heart of Gates' philanthropy and it is essential that the Gates Foundation remain on the good side of the government, which has cracked down on foreign donor-backed organizations. With the vast numbers of Indians in dire poverty, the global development goals cannot be achieved without India's progress.
The Gates Foundation's continued access to India has become even more important as President Trump withdraws the United States from the World Health Organization and hampers the United States International Development Agency. Supporting India's various public health programs, WHO is facing budget cuts after the US exit. The Gates Foundation, a giant in global public health development, is one of the top donors of anyone
For Modi, his approval from Gates – the very face of the computer age of many Indians – is a way of linking Gates's technology legacy to the digital economy defended by the Modi government, the pillar of its “developed India” policy.
According to a post written about GatesNotes and two former employees who have gained direct insight into the foundation's activities in India, given his deep belief in the power of innovation for progress, the desire for technology to use technology for growth resonated with Gates personally. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid putting expert relationships at risk.
Representatives from the Gates Foundation and Gates Venture, a private philanthropist firm, did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately have comment.
Gates has enough companies to embrace Modi, and Western political and business leaders court India to increase geopolitical and economic power. In doing so, many have turned their eyes on the Modi government's attacks on the secular foundations of the country, the demons of India's Muslim minority, and the silence of civil society.
Globally, perceptions from Gates have focused on Modi for his development work, not for Hindu nationalist politics. Domestic, the relationship has potential political benefits for Modi.
“In the tech-driven section of India's middle class, they grew up with Gates as this iconic figure,” said P. Sainath, founder and editor of Rural India's Archives, an independent digital media outlet. “Being better with Bill Gates won't hurt your image in those classes.”
Each other's cheerleaders
India and Gates have a deep relationship with Microsoft, the company he co-founded. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, is from India. In January, Nadella announced plans to invest $3 billion in India, including artificial intelligence, to further support Modi's vision. Gates has visited India more than 12 times over decades, including Microsoft's CEO.
The Seattle-based Gates Foundation, launched in 2000, opened its India office in 2003 and invests more in the country than anywhere else outside the US. This year, the Foundation's Council will meet in India, celebrating its 25th anniversary.
The foundation has partnered with successive Indian governments supporting public health initiatives such as the eradication of polio. It is also working closely with the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar governments, which have a two-populated population. Gates sat down with the former Indian Prime Minister, including Modi's predecessor Manmohan Singh. However, the conversations usually focused narrowly on foundation work in India.
According to a post from GatesNotes, Gates hit it on Modi at his first meeting in 2014, talking twice as long as planned. He said he was impressed with Modi because of his focus on public health, particularly hygiene. Toilets were “high on the agenda, along with vaccines, bank accounts and clinics.”
Open defecation and waste management remain a major challenge in India, a country of 1.4 billion people. Modi's government claimed that it had launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission) and built more than 100 million toilets by 2019. That was the work that the Foundation gave him awards and caused him backlash.
When Gates traveled to India in 2023, he said his sit-in with Modi was the “highlight” of his visit and praised him in the country's digital payments system. “This country shows what is possible when investing in innovation,” he wrote in GatesNotes.
Some people who know the foundation's problem said some employees were uneasy about Gates' Modi's embrace and claimed that the foundation pursued its goals and that Gates was consistent with the government's purpose without becoming a prime minister's cheerleader.
Modi also praised Gates, saying his government has evaluated the foundation's expertise and its data and evidence-driven approach. In 2020, when they virtually met during the pandemic, Modi encouraged the foundation to “lead” in analyzing changes in health care and education needed in the post-Covid world.
Last March, three weeks before the election when Modi was seeking a third term, he invited Gates to his civil servant to chat about the country's progress in using technology to improve the lives of Indians.
The government had planned to air the entire conference on national television, reaching more than 650 million people. However, the Election Commission told the public broadcaster that doing so would provide unfair advantages to Modi's party, according to a report by the Economic Times, an Indian newspaper. Ultimately, only a portion of Modi's chat with Gates was aired on television, but was streamed entirely on Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party website.
An Election Commission spokesperson said he had no information about the event. Rajiv Kumar, then-Chief Election Commissioner, did not respond to a request for comment.
Close grip for foreign donors
India has long relied on foreign donors to achieve its goals. Organisations such as Amnesty International, Rotary International, the Red Cross, Oxfam, USAID, Greenpeace, and various UN agencies and private groups such as Ford, Rockefeller and the Gates Foundation have funded and worked with non-local communities.
However, as Modi government becomes increasingly intolerant of criticism and challenges from overseas, Indian laws regulating the flow of foreign donor funds to domestic nonprofits have become stricter and more frequently applied.
A year after Modi became prime minister in 2014, the government began cracking down on foreign organizations, beginning with Greenpeace. Many have begun to scale back their activities or take steps to ensure their agenda is consistent with government goals.
In 2017, the Indian government revoked its license to receive foreign donations, accusing the Indian Public Health Foundation, one of the nation's largest nonprofit organizations of misusing funds. The Gates Foundation was a major donor to the organization. Health Nonprofit regained its license in 2021.
The Gates Foundation has made it clear that the Indian government is to help the Indian government achieve its goals by providing expertise in priority areas, including ensuring access to financial services for poor, women-led development, public health and climate change.
The foundation was closely tied to the message after the controversy over the award presented to Modi.
At the time, the foundation said the award narrowly focused on hygiene goals.
Soon, Gates met with Modi from India. According to a government news release at the time, Gates strengthened the foundation's commitment to supporting the Indian government's goals.
