Impatient Optimists
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Authors / Biography

Bachi Karkaria

Title Writer
Organization The Times of India

Bachi Karkaria is the writer behind the satirical column Erratica and its cheeky sign-off character, Alec Smart. It has had a growing league of followers since 1994, when the column began in the Metropolis on Saturday. It now appears on the edit page of The Times of India every Friday.

Bachi Karkaria also writes Giving Gyan in the Mumbai Mirror and its fellow publications in other cities. It is a shooting-from-the-lip advice column to the lovelorn and otherwise torn, telling them to stop cribbing and start living—all in her her branded pithy, witty style.

Posts By Bachi Karkaria

On Immunizations and Health: What Is 'GAVI' and Who Is its Newest Leader?

August 08, 2011 / Bachi Karkaria

Want to know more about the new leader of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), the organization responsible for financing and distributing new and underutilized vaccines to the poorest children of the world?

Full Blog Post ›


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  • "Our desire to bring every good thing to our children is a force for good throughout the world. It’s what propels societies forward." —Melinda Gates

  • The Global Fund has helped to deliver more than 190 million bed nets to protect families from malaria.

  • "The world faces a clear choice. If we invest relatively small amounts, many more poor farmers will be able to feed their families." —Bill Gates, 2012 Annual Letter

  • "When it come to global health, Bill and I are optimists—but we're impatient optimists. Tremendous progress is being made. But there is still so much we're impatient to see done." —Melinda French Gates

  • In Senegal, 80% of households now have a bed net, helping the number of malaria cases there drop 50% in a single year.

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