‘Malnutrition is vastly ignored... would fix it if I had a magic wand’

In an interview with HT Editor R Sukumar, Bill Gates says once we hit the pandemic, some countries went backwards, but India continues to make progress

Every September, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation releases its Goalkeepers report tracking progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. In the 2024 report, the focus turns to malnutrition. “Every now and then, somebody will ask me what I would do if I had a magic wand. For years, I’ve given the same answer: I would solve malnutrition,” co-chair of the foundation, Bill Gates, says in his introduction to the report. In a Zoom interview, Gates discussed the key challenge, and the looming climate crisis which adds a layer of complexity to just about every problem. Edited excerpts.

Bill Gates. (AFP)