Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and Chairman of the Gates Foundation, was on Monday warmly received by the Andhra Pradesh government. This was, however, met with criticism as Gates has been accused of wrongdoing due to his communications in the Epstein Files. The American tech billionaire was also accused of "treating India like a lab" for his products.
Gates has denied allegations linked to the Epstein Files as "absolutely absurd and completely false".
Gates was welcomed by Nara Lokesh and other Cabinet colleagues at Gannavaram Airport. "Welcome to Amaravati, Mr Bill Gates. It was a pleasure to receive the Chair of the Gates Foundation at Gannavaram Airport today," Lokesh said in a post on 'X'.
Gates went to the state secretariat for discussions on strengthening cooperation in health, agriculture, education and technology-driven governance initiatives, according to a PTI report.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu posted on X, retracing his ties with Gates to 1997 when he presented his vision for IT in the state.
"What began as a conversation about building a technology ecosystem back then has now evolved into a broader mission of using innovation to transform governance and improve lives at scale," posted Naidu, adding that he had on Monday presented his "vision for Swarna Andhra 2047".
The attempt, Naidu said, was to discuss sectors for collaboration with the Gates Foundation "to empower our people and enhance their quality of life".
Gates, according to a report by ANI, would be participating in the AI-India Impact Summit.
While Bill Gates has stepped down from being the Chairman of Microsoft in 2014, he is heading the Board of the Gates Foundation, which is his philanthropy project.
However, the reception accorded to Gates was slammed by a section of the people over messages in the Epstein Files alleging that he had taken part in sexual activities as part of Jeffrey Epstein's ring.
Epstein was a convicted paedophile who died in prison in 2019.
The name of Bill Gates appeared in the latest chunk of 3.5 million pages of documents linked to Epstein released by the US Justice Department.
In one note, Epstein wrote that he helped Gates acquire drugs "in order to deal with consequences of sex with Russian girls".
Gates, in an interview with Nine News, rubbished the allegations that he had contracted sexually transmitted disease (STD) after "sex with Russian girls" while being married to Melinda Gates.
During a podcast interview with NPR, Melinda Gates suggested that Bill Gates's link to Jeffrey Epstein might have been the reason behind the end of their 27 years of marriage.
Gates's India visit came amid criticism over the alleged Epstein links and treating India as a laboratory.
"Bill Gates is a pdf, mentioned multiple times in Epstein files, even his wife left him for that and he treats India as a testing lab for his products and Indians like lab rats," wrote Veena Jain on X.
"His [Gates's] name has appeared multiple times in the Epstein files along with photos. After knowing all this, anyone should avoid meeting him," Anup Dhote, in-charge of Madhya Pradesh Kisan Congress, posted on X.
While parties didn't try to gain political mileage from insinuations regarding a world-famous entrepreneur and philanthropist, there were dozens of posts criticising meetings and contacts with Bill Gates amid his visit to India.
