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Gates Foundation Hires Senior Tata Official as India Policy Head

As India policy director, Ubale will oversee Gates Foundation’s healthcare, poverty and educational activities in India.

Melinda Gates of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (Photograher: Seong Joon Cho/Bloomberg)
Melinda Gates of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (Photograher: Seong Joon Cho/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has hired a senior executive from Tata Group, India’s largest business group, for its operations in the country.

Sanjay Ubale, head of infrastructure and urban solutions at the conglomerate’s holding company Tata Sons Pvt, will be joining Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as policy director in its India office, Archana Vyas, deputy director of communications at the foundation said.

In his new job, Ubale will oversee the Seattle-based charity’s healthcare, poverty alleviation and educational activities in India, he said in a phone interview on Thursday.

Ubale, who has spent more than a decade at Tata Group, was previously chief executive officer of its closely-held property arm Tata Realty & Infrastructure Ltd. A spokeswoman for Tata Sons confirmed Ubale has resigned but declined to comment further.

The Gates Foundation, the world’s biggest private charity, has an endowment of $50.7 billion, according to its website. In India -- where about 60 percent of the population lives on around $3 a day -- its work includes reducing infant mortality, subsidizing the development of affordable vaccines, increasing agricultural yields and boosting access to financial services.

The charity is particularly focused on Bihar, the country’s most densely-populated state, and neighboring Uttar Pradesh in northern India.

To contact the reporters on this story: Baiju Kalesh in Mumbai at bkalesh@bloomberg.net;P R Sanjai in Mumbai at psanjai@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fion Li at fli59@bloomberg.net, ;Sam Nagarajan at samnagarajan@bloomberg.net, Ben Scent, Unni Krishnan

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