Speech by Hon'ble President of India, Shrimati Pratibha Devisingh Patil, During the Presentation of the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development 2007

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure and privilege for me to confer the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for the year 2007 on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I extend my heartiest congratulations to Bill and Melinda Gates who are the co-chairs of the Foundation and have done exemplary philanthropic work around the world and have also been working in India.

The Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was nurtured under the shadow of her father, the illustrious Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and grew up in an atmosphere surcharged with the fervour of the national freedom struggle. She was the product of her education, and her exposure to the various streams of intellectual thoughts and her own experiences in the many years of public life. All this guided her in her actions and responses to the challenges of nation-building. She constantly displayed not only her sensitivity to the rich heritage of Indian philosophy but also her willingness to adapt and innovate. She was always open to the use of newer and better methods for the advancement of the nation. Indiraji said, "Real scientific thinking is to be on the look out for new ideas, new methods, new inventions, all the time." It was her firm conviction that the entire population should be involved in the quest for knowledge and every sector of economic activity must have firmer scientific underpinnings. In her view, the scientific community could be the catalyst of change and endow the nation with competence and confidence.

It was the scientific temper of Indiraji which led her to steer the Green Revolution. The advances of technology - improved seeds, fertilizers and controlled irrigation - were ploughed into the agricultural field. India surged ahead to achieve self-sufficiency in foodgrains. We are now working towards the Second Green Revolution. We would like to work with the international community to eradicate hunger from the planet. Indiraji also constantly strove to provide to the scientific community, an enabling environment for research and innovation. It was during her time that India became the third largest reservoir of skilled scientific manpower and the tenth industrial power. This laid the foundation for India's entry into the field of Information Technology and Knowledge Society as a strong player in later years.

In her message sent to the First Global Conference on the Future in 1980, Indiraji observed that the stupendous growth of computer technology was stretching both the mind and memory. It was around the same time that Microsoft, co-established by Bill Gates, was beginning to make some of the greatest scientific advances of the modern computer age. Today, we take for granted the easy operations of personal computers. We only have to look back a few decades to remember the time when computers were owned only by governments and large corporations, when computers occupied huge spaces, when each computer had its own operating system and was programmed in a particular computer language. Today, even the simplest of our computers have larger memory banks and processing capabilities than many of those of the bygone era that used to occupy the whole room. Bill Gates was one of the first to recognize the potential of personal computers. He wrote the MS-DOS programme and later went on to produce the Windows Operating System. It was this vision of Bill Gates which has resulted in an exponential rise of computers across the world.

Computers have changed the way we work and connect with each other, making the world a global village and promoting a Knowledge Society. It is, therefore, fitting that the foundation bearing the name of Bill Gates is being presented an award named after Indira Gandhi who had a firm belief that science was at the very core of human advancement. She also had a deep understanding of the reality of the people of India. She had seen the sufferings of the poor. She was determined to take measures to alleviate poverty and to build a strong and progressive India. This was her mission. From housing to land reforms, from agricultural support to special measures for education and from the availability of loans to start small businesses to promotion of space and nuclear technology, all formed a part of this mission. She dedicated her life to transform the lives of the people.

Bill Gates, after having transformed the world of computers and becoming the richest person on the planet, launched along with his wife Melinda, on the mission to transform the lives of people by setting up the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This Foundation seeks to contribute to the global fight to overcome poverty, hunger and disease, to promote research and education, to work for agricultural development and to provide financial services to the poor. These are the issues to which Bill and Melinda Gates have decided to dedicate much of their wealth and their time. I was encouraged with the remarks of Bill Gates in his annual Foundation lecture of 2009 that he sees opportunity for big breakthroughs in discovering new vaccines, developing new seeds and improving the nutrition levels of children, including through technological innovations. When a technological giant like Bill Gates joins the cause of changing the lives of people through philanthropy, we have reason to be optimistic about the outcome.

Like Indiraji, Bill Gates has demonstrated that he has the foresight and ability to plan for the future. Those who travel with the desire to make their own lives more meaningful by working for the welfare of humanity are leaders remembered forever. Both Indiraji and Bill Gates saw "the road ahead", which is the title of the book written by Bill Gates, and made an impact on the collective journey of humanity. I conclude by wishing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and both of them personally, for success in their work. May God bless them with long, healthy and fruitful lives. It has been an honour to confer this Award today, as I complete two years in office today itself. It is an occasion also to appeal to my fellow citizens to come forth and demonstrate that knowledge, generosity and commitment to the higher cause of serving humanity are a potent force of the 21st Century.

Thank you,
JAI HIND