Bhubaneswar: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates arrived in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday and today he visited Maa Mangla Basti here to see the working of the Jaga Mission and ‘Mukta’ scheme.
In his blog, Gates had earlier mentioned he would be visiting a low-income community in Odisha where a government programme is helping women get the skills to fulfil government construction contracts. “Since 2018, this programme has helped 22,000 groups of women deliver on more than 52,000 projects including building roads, drains, and toilets,” he wrote.
Gates is scheduled to meet Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today. He will attend several other programmes during the day, including one with a focus on the use of artificial intelligence for farmers for which he is likely to visit the Krushi Bhawan, and ‘Mission Shakti’.
Since 2017, the Odisha government’s Department of Agriculture & Farmer Empowerment and the Fisheries and Animal Resource Department have collaborated with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to drive innovation in data-driven decision-making, officials said.
The Bill Gates Foundation signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Odisha government in 2021.
