Smartphones are better instruments than plastic cards, says Bill Gates

Multi-billionaire and Microsoft founder Bill Gates on Thursday said his non-profit organisation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would like to work closely with the Indian government on various services under the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), including cyber security.

According to sources privy to the meeting, Gates told Minister of IT Ravi Shankar Prasad that “smartphones are better instruments than plastic cards and payment banks are more sustainable approach for financial transactions.”

“He (Gates) said his Foundation is involved in making digital payment flawless and since poor people are unable to manage money wisely, his Foundation wants to help the economically weaker sections in better management of money,” an official told BusinessLine .

Gates, according to the official, also said the Foundation is involved in making digital payment flawless and offered support to build architecture for e-Health.

Gates has also touched upon the Indian government’s regulations saying that ‘regulations were restrictive in building applications’, the official said, adding that Gates said agri-finance and payment banks are interesting subjects, but was concerned when payment banks will take off in India. Meanwhile, Gates said, “It’s a very exciting time in India and some of these digital platform opportunities are really quite amazing.”

The government has invested manpower and payment banks and payment infrastructure. It is now a case of building applications on top of those, he said.

“We need to work on health issues/ health applications. Our Foundation is committed in working on those areas – relationship with this Ministry will be very critical for us,” Gates said.

When asked as to how his Foundation will partner with government on health applications, the IT czar gave an example of applications being used for health records.

“It’s the question of having health records, what should it look like, how do we ensure it’s standardised, kept private. There is a lot of experience on this globally, but with great efficiency, having a health record will be important,” he said.

From the government’s side, Prasad said that he has told Gates about the nature of Aadhaar, Aadhaar-enabled payment and other platforms we have created, and also the area of digital healthcare and Digital India.

“Gates is aware of Aadhaar and Unified Payment Interface, as being two building blocks and the Foundation wants to work with start-ups who can build value-added services for bottom of the pyramid,” he said after the 30-minute meeting.

Gates, who met the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and had a session at NITI Aayog on Wednesday, also had a meeting with Food Safety and Standards Authority of India officials along with Secretaries from eight key central ministries and Departments on Thursday, including Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Department of Food and Public Distribution, and Ministry of Human Resource Development.

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