On Monday, Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, visited Pakistan with several delegation members from the foundation for a day. The agenda included discussions on polio eradication, followed by separate roundtables on financial inclusion and climate adaptation chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.Â
These roundtables, organized through the foundation and its network in Pakistan, were typically held with very small groups comprising startups and stakeholders from the government and experts. For example the roundtable on climate adaptation was participated by AgriTech startup Farmdar, healthtech startup Sehat Kahani and credit enhancement provider Infra Zaamin, with participation by Acumen Pakistan.Â
The purpose of these roundtable was to project to Bill Gates what was being done in these areas followed by meetings with the foundation teams on how startups could collaborate together. How did the meetings go? Profit has some of the details. The content in this publication is expensive to produce. But unlike other journalistic outfits, business publications have to cover the very organizations that directly give them advertisements. Hence, this large source of revenue, which is the lifeblood of other media houses, is severely compromised on account of Profit’s no-compromise policy when it comes to our reporting. No wonder, Profit has lost multiple ad deals, worth tens of millions of rupees, due to stories that held big businesses to account. Hence, for our work to continue unfettered, it must be supported by discerning readers who know the value of quality business journalism, not just for the economy but for the society as a whole.To read the full article, subscribe and support independent business journalism in Pakistan
