In next 15 years, lives of poor will improve faster than ever

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A recent Oxfam study reported that income inequality in the world is increasing and accelerating, but Melinda and Bill Gates, who have pledged to give away most of their billions, have a different perspective: Lives of people in poor countries will improve faster in the next 15 years than at any other time in history , they said in their annual letter released on Thursday, backing it up in an interview in which they offered an upbeat assessment of India which is home to some of the most profound changes taking place in today's world, with the Gates Foundation playing a small but innovative role.

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“The rich world will keep getting exciting new advances too, but the improvements in the lives of the poor will be far more fundamental -the basics of a healthy , productive life,'' the famed billionaire couple said, maintaining that “it's great that more people in rich countries will be able to watch movies on super high-resolution screens. It's even better that more parents in poor countries will know their children aren't going to die''.The poor, said one of the world's wealthiest and most philanthropic couples, will be living longer and in better health, with unprecedented opportunities to get an education, eat nutritious food, and benefit from mobile banking. These breakthroughs will be driven by innovation in technology -ranging from new vaccines and har dier crops to much cheap er smartphones and tablets

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They were particularly chuffed about developments in India, where the Gates Foundation has plowed mil lions in health intervention, with the software pasha pointing to the development of the rotavirus vaccine (which addresses diarrhoea that kills millions of infants) by Indian companies as an example of what India can do for the rest of the developing world. Exulting over India’s triumph over polio, Gates said the success offered a roadmap for other immunization efforts and all other primary healthcare activity.But there is still much to do, and Melinda Gates offered a sobering perspective of the outreach problems in states such as UP and Bihar because they had fallen so far behind and had huge populations. Still, she cited “one of the best pieces of research in recent times’’ as grounds for optimism: 44% of infant deaths occurred in the first 30 days and Viswajit Singh’s study showed that doing basic things — cleanliness, keeping the baby warm, and breastfeeding, cut infant mortality by 50%.

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“He has proved that it doesn’t take all this great, expensive medical interventions to drastically cut down infant mortality,’’ Melinda Gates said.Bill Gates himself spoke approvingly of low-cost solutions from India, such as $35 locally-made, basic incuba tors, compared to expensive machines made by western companies, saying the Gates Foundation was one of the biggest funders of low-cost interventions and believed in keeping things as simple as possible for health workers.

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Asked about recent reports suggesting that lifestyle diseases, such as diabetes and stroke, are proving to be more lethal in India than communicable diseases, the Gateses maintained that “India has a far bigger malnutrition problem than over-nutrition problem“.“Obesity is starting in the wealthier segments of the population but that is more a sugar and carbs issue,“ Gates said. “In the meantime, India has got far more kids that are malnourished and whose brains are not developed, way more than any other country. That's really the crisis,“ Gates maintained.

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