Gates Foundation

The Gates Foundation is a global philanthropic organisation working to fight poverty, disease, and inequity worldwide. It began working in India in 2003 with Avahan, an HIV prevention programme estimated to have prevented 600,000 new infections, and has since become one of its most significant country programmes. The foundation has invested more in India than in any other country besides the United States.

In India, the foundation operates through a Delhi regional office, working as a branch office of a foreign organisation under Reserve Bank of India permissions. It holds a formal Memorandum of Cooperation with India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, providing technical, management, and programme design support for national health priorities. All grant funds are disbursed directly from its Seattle headquarters, and the foundation verifies FCRA compliance for every Indian grantee before releasing payments.

Major Areas of Work

• Health: Improving access to quality, affordable healthcare with a focus on maternal and child health, immunisation, family planning, nutrition, and neglected tropical diseases like tuberculosis and lymphatic filariasis.

• Sanitation: Supporting India's goals around open-defecation-free status, fecal sludge management, and safe sanitation access, especially for the urban poor and women.

• Agricultural Development: Helping smallholder farmers, particularly women, increase incomes and productivity while improving access to nutritious food.

• Gender Equality: Focusing on women's economic empowerment to expand access to income, assets, and economic opportunity.

• Inclusive Financial Systems: Expanding access to digital financial services so more Indians can participate in the formal financial sector.

Major Initiatives & Programmes

• Avahan: The foundation's original India initiative (2003), an HIV prevention programme credited with preventing an estimated 600,000 new infections.

• Polio Eradication: A coordinated effort with government and partners that mobilized 2.3 million volunteer vaccinators to reach 170 million children with repeated doses of oral polio vaccine, contributing to India being declared polio-free in 2014.

• Bihar & Uttar Pradesh Programmes: The foundation's two priority states, with a combined population of over 300 million, where it supports maternal, newborn, and child health, nutrition, immunisation, disease control, agricultural development, and women's economic empowerment.

• Multi-state Sanitation & Agriculture Work: Active programming in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Maharashtra on sanitation, agricultural development, and digital financial inclusion.

• Neglected Tropical Disease Control: Continued work on tuberculosis, visceral leishmaniasis, and lymphatic filariasis, building on the polio eradication playbook.

Impact

• Prevented an estimated 600,000 new HIV infections through the Avahan programme

• Contributed to India being declared polio-free in 2014, following a campaign reaching 170 million children through 2.3 million volunteer vaccinators

• Largest philanthropic investment in India outside the foundation's work in the United States

• Formal government partnership (MoC with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare) shaping national policy on maternal and child mortality, nutrition, and immunisation

• Active grant-making across five core sectors and six states, spanning health, sanitation, agriculture, gender equality, and financial inclusion

The Gates Foundation offers people a chance to work on public health and development at genuinely national scale, backed by deep resources and long-standing government relationships that few organisations can match. Its data-driven approach (testing what works and adjusting strategy accordingly) appeals to people who want rigor and evidence behind their work, not just good intentions. Being part of a global foundation also means access to worldwide expertise and networks, while the India-specific focus on Bihar and Uttar Pradesh means the day-to-day work stays grounded in some of the country's highest-need regions.

The Gates Foundation suits people who want to work on large-scale public health and development challenges through government partnership rather than direct service delivery, and who are comfortable with a data-driven, policy-influencing model of impact.