Bill Gates, Akhilesh Yadav meet to discuss UP healthcare

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world, is scheduled to meet Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow today to discuss healthcare in the state.

The 56-year-old Gates and Yadav are likely discuss a raft of healthcare programmes that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation plans to take up in the state.

An advance team from Gate's office has met senior officials in the state last week and done the ground work for the Gates-Yadav meeting. Gates is likely to present a five-point programme that his foundation plans to unveil in the state to enhance healthcare in sectors like neo-natal care, maternity, nutrition, family planning and child health.

The schemes Gates proposes to suggest and fund include compulsory immunisation, timely and extensive care of a would-be-mother and her nutrition.  Gates is also understood to be particularly interested in taking up drives like polio eradication and other vaccinations, which are in poor state in UP.

According to reports, the Gates Foundation is looking to form a more productive relationship with the state government and it sees a new opportunity with Akhilesh Yadav becoming the chief minister. The foundation is also looking to invest in women's health and family planning.