So, with the assistance of the leading oncologists and medical researchers who tried to help save her, I prepared a grand plan to cure cancer, which incorporates the exponential technologies that I used to teach at Carnegie Mellons School of Engineering in Silicon Valley, such as genetic sequencing, machine learning, advanced sensors, and synthetic biology. 

The plan was to launch the largest clinical trial in world history, one that would help hundreds of thousands of cancer patients by providing them with the most advanced treatments, with the guidance of global experts. It entailed collecting genetic data and bio-samples, creating 3D organoids so that the tumor would be the guinea pig rather than the patient, and open-sourcing select, anonymous data in order to enable researchers around the globe to do what the medical industrys culture of secrecy prevents them from doing: developing cures.

The problem was that such a plan could not be implemented in the United States, because of the vested interests in maintaining the status quo and protecting the profits of the medical industry.  So I turned to India.

Indias culture and values embody a fundamental belief in a human-centric approach to technology, knowledge-sharing, and uplifting humanity. Yes, there are many roadblocks in India, but its deep-rooted spiritual values triumph. 

At a meeting with Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, in 2019, he pledged his whole-hearted support to the grand planand then again in a follow-up meeting we had last month at his home in New Delhi.

India has another asset too: philanthropists and industrialists with the highest ethical values. The person I consider to be one the greatest humanitarian of our times, Ratan Tata, and the Tata Group, ended up partly funding a project that Tatas former lieutenant and head of Tata Trusts, R. Venkataramanan, presented to them: to overhaul Indias cancer care system. Venkat and his co-founder and medical director, Moni Abraham Kuriakose, asked me to work with them to implement a distributed cancer care network to guide patients through the entire process of cancer treatmentand implement my grand plan.

Karkinos Healthcare, the company that they started, is demonstrating Indias unique ability to solve global problems. In two years, it has made tremendous progress. It is now in operation at 68 hospitals across the country, has screened 400,000 patients, assisted more than 250,000 people with early symptoms, and saved hundreds of lives. It has acquired the most advanced genomic sequencing and diagnostics equipment and built bio-sample repositories, as well as a comprehensive cloud-based I.T. infrastructure for medical data and reports.

At our recent meeting with Prime Minister Modi, the director of Clinical Research at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer and Harvard Medical School Keith Flaherty said that India is about to leapfrog the U.S. in cancer research.

There is no other organization on the planet that can integrate cutting-edge, patient-facing digital tools and molecular diagnostic platforms to navigate patients for current therapies while also guiding the discovery and development of the next generation of therapies, he added. He told the PM that U.S. academic medical centers are not even close to being able to do such things, because they will never have the free flow of information between clinical care and research environments.

As Flaherty explained in a more detailed discussion that you can watch, in the U.S., Europe, and the Pacific Rim, separate analyses are being done with clinical, pathology, radiology, molecular, and treatment data. In no environment are all of those data elements able to be combined to capture all of the complexity of cancer data and use those insights to corner the disease with next-generation, rational combination therapies. In most of these countries, the data privacy laws are similar, according to R. Venkatramanan. But each builds barriers to sharing data and knowledge so there is no way to integrate technologies for molecular and therapeutic sensitivity testing under one roof, which can be deployed simultaneously on individual tumor specimens to guide therapy selection, clinical trial participation, and the discovery of novel combinations as well as new mechanisms.

Indias recently introduced Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission is a welcome departure from this reductionist compartmentalization of healthcare information because it facilitates and mandates interoperability between health systems.

As Gary Reedy, the former CEO of the American Cancer Society, told the prime minister, Because India has no vested interests to protect and has a culture of giving and sharing, it can do what the West only dreams about. Both Flaherty and Reedy noted a big difference between the U.S. and India: patients even in the most remote Indian villages are ready to trust the caregivers and technologies. 

This is also why I am working on having another company that I have long been mentoring and recently made an investment in, bring its agriculture technologies to India. Founded in Santiago, Chile, the company, Plasma Water Solutions, has made breakthroughs in replicating the magic that Mother Nature uses to nurture and protect its flora: plasma-activated water (PAW), something that results when lightning (plasma) passes through air and water. The companys devices, with the power consumption of a hairdryer, convert air and water into PAW without any chemicals or residues.

Pesticides and chemical fertilizers have well-documented links to cancer, so reducing them will help eliminate one of the many sources of this disease. A single application of PAW can kill almost all plant bacteria and pathogens. The PAW also provokes plants into activating natural defenses against predators, and it accelerates seed germination and seedling growth. Through software-controlled modulations, the devices can also generate nitrates, natures fertilizers. The results of six months of testing on farms across America are mind-blowing. When vegetables are washed with PAW, they resist fungal infections. And merely treating seeds in PAW dramatically increases their germination and growth rates. In a single season, per-acre melon yields have increased by a hundred boxes of fruit, and spinach and sorghum per-acre yields have each increased by some 450 kg. And this is all organic. 

As Plasma Waters CEO Robert Hardt and founder Alfredo Zolezzi said, one of the reasons for their making India a priority is the countrys openness to tech-enabled development in sectors ranging from agriculture to education. From the dawn of recorded history, India led the world in science and innovationand it is ready to do so again. 

This is why Indias leadership of the G20 comes at such an opportune time. The world is suffering from widespread inequality and industrially induced climate change, and India has the ability to solve such global problems without creating more of them. As Prime Minister Modi said to me in a tweet, India is brimming with enthusiasm for science and technology and its young people are leveraging the power of science to make our planet better.

Vivek Wadhwa is an academic, entrepreneur, and author. His book, From Incremental to Exponential, explains how large companies can see the future and rethink innovation.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

More must-read commentary published by Fortune:

The unemployment rate dipped to 3.4%, a new half-century low.

Fridays government report added to the picture of a resilient labor market, with low unemployment, relatively few layoffs and many job openings even as most economists foresee a recession nearing. Though good for workers, employers steady demand for labor has also helped accelerate wage growth and contributed to high inflation.

Januarys job growth, which far exceeded Decembers 269,000 gain, could raise doubts about whether inflation pressures will ease further in the months ahead. The Fed has raised its key rate eight times since March to try to contain inflation, which hit a four-decade high last year but has slowed since then.

Companies are still seeking more workers and are hanging tightly onto the ones they have. Putting aside some high-profile layoffs at big tech companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and others, most workers are enjoying an unusual level of job security even at a time when many economists foresee a recession approaching.

For all of 2022, the economy had added a sizzling average of 375,000 jobs a month. That was a pace vigorous enough to have contributed to the painful inflation Americans have endured, the worst such bout in 40 years. A tight job market tends to put upward pressure on wages, which, in turn, feed into inflation.

The Fed, hoping to cool the job market and the economy and, as a consequence, inflation has steadily raised borrowing rates, most recently on Wednesday. Year-over-year measures of consumer inflation have steadily eased since peaking at 9.1% in June. But at 6.5% in December, inflation remains far above the Feds 2% target, which is why the central banks policymakers have reiterated their intent to keep raising borrowing rates for at least a few more months.

The Fed is aiming to achieve a soft landing a pullback in the economy that is just enough to tame high inflation without triggering a recession. The policymakers hope that employers can slow wage increases and inflationary pressures by reducing job openings but not necessarily by laying off many employees.

But the job markets resilience isnt making that hoped-for outcome any easier. On Wednesday, the Labor Department reported that employers posted 11 million job openings in December, an unexpected jump from 10.4 million in November and the largest number since July. There are now about two job vacancies, on average, for every unemployed American.

The Labor Departments monthly count of layoffs has amounted to fewer than 1.5 million for 21 straight months. Until 2021, that figure had never dropped so low in records dating back two decades.

Yet another sign that workers are benefiting from unusual job security is the weekly number of people who apply for unemployment benefits. That figure is a proxy for layoffs, one that economists monitor for clues about where the job market might be headed. The government said Thursday that the number of jobless claims fell last week to its lowest level since April.

The pace of applications for unemployment aid has remained rock-bottom despite a steady stream of headline-making layoff announcements. Facebook parent Meta is cutting 11,000 jobs, Amazon 18,000, Microsoft 10,000, Google 12,000. Some economists suspect that many laid-off workers might not be showing up at the unemployment line because they can still find new jobs easily.

AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report.

Learn how to navigate and strengthen trust in your business with The Trust Factor, a weekly newsletter examining what leaders need to succeed. Sign up here.

Throw it straight into the trash can.

The House of Mouse, under the leadership of returning CEO Bob Iger since November, said giving the Trian Fund Management co-founder a seat at the table threatens to undermine the companys entire strategy at a delicate juncture and must be stopped.

We are skeptical of his motives and believe he would be disruptive at a crucial period for Disney, it argued in a statement. In fact, Mr. Peltz sought a board seat before he was a shareholder. 

This could be a potential reference to the investors friendship with Ike Perlmutter, a major Disney shareholder ever since he sold Marvel to the company in 2009. The two billionaires live in Palm Beach, Florida, and supported Donald Trump, a critic of the media group and its progressive-minded staff. 

Perlmutters relations with the media giant have been strained, in particular after Iger granted Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feiges wish to be free of Perlmutters constant interference.

According to Hollywood Reporter, Peltz held discussions with then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek last July with Perlmutters support. But any plans they might have hatched together were presumably scrapped after Chapeks sudden ouster during a late November weekend.

Disney wants shareholders to vote only after management has presented a new strategic plan

On Thursday, the Disney board told shareholders they did not need someone like Peltz advocating on their behalf, since their interests were adequately represented by no less than 10 out of 11 board members independent from the day-to-day executive team run by Iger.

It urged shareholders to therefore support the re-election of former U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman to the board and vote against the nomination of Peltz by his investment firm. 

Fromans decades of experience in business and international affairs are critical to helping Disney assess the risks and opportunities in an increasingly complex global marketplace, it wrote.

One recent deal may underline that point. Disney recently secured Beijings regulatory approval to bring Black Panther: Wakanda Forever to China from next week, ending a ban in place since July 2019before the pandemic hit. 

The board, therefore, asked investors to hold off until it could begin mailing materials for its as yet unscheduled annual general meeting, including its white-colored proxy card with Froman on the ballot. 

By then management could be able to present its case to investors for how it would grow the company going forward.

Shareholders should give themselves the benefit of voting on a fully informed basis, taking the board and management teams important update on its strategy to create value into consideration, it argued. If you have already received materials with a blue proxy card from the Trian Group, please simply discard them.

Trian Fund Management, which claims to own $1 billion worth of Disney shares, did not immediately respond to a request by Fortune for comment.

Peltz argues Disney is a company in crisis

Peltz is no stranger to shareholder showdowns and hasnt been one to backdown from a fight.

The Floridian is a veteran of three separate proxy wars that pitted management against investors: first with Heinz in 2006, then DuPont in 2015 and finally Procter & Gamble two years later.

Trian argues that Disney is a company in crisis whose problems are primarily self-inflicted, resulting in the loss of over $120 billion in market cap last year that sent the stock plunging to eight-year lows.

It criticizes everything from excessive management compensation and overpaying for Twenty-First Century Foxs traditional media assets to a flawed streaming strategy resulting in the first suspension of dividends in 57 years.

Importantly Trian claimed it did not favor financial engineering by piling Disneys balance sheet full of debt at the risk of diminished solvencya common demand by short-term activist investorsnor did it look to break up the company or even replace Iger as CEO.

Disney is not playing ball, however, arguing its opposition to Peltz is based on over six months of conversations and written exchanges with the Trian co-founder. 

He has demonstrated that he does not understand Disneys businesses and he lacks the perspective and experience to contribute to the objective of delivering shareholder value in a rapidly shifting media ecosystem, it told shareholders on Thursday. 

Disney publishes its fiscal first quarter results after the close of trading on Feb. 8^th, with all eyes focused on its Direct-To-Consumer division responsible for its streaming business. 

Finance chief Christine McCarthy pledged in early November that three-month DTC losses peaked in Q4 at nearly $1.5 billion and should have narrowed by at least $200 million in Q1.

Learn how to navigate and strengthen trust in your business with The Trust Factor, a weekly newsletter examining what leaders need to succeed. Sign up here.

Its part of the Department of Transportations Call to Action campaign, which urges commitments from the private sector, trade groups and health and safety organizations to reduce serious traffic injuries and deaths.

Traffic fatalities are near historic highs after a surge of dangerous driving during the coronavirus pandemic.

The public-private effort, unveiled Friday as part of the departments multiyear strategy started last year to make roads safer, ranges from investments to improve school crosswalks to enhanced seat belt alerts in Uber vehicles and a partnership between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to promote proven injury prevention strategies, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told The Associated Press.

It comes on the heels of the award of 510 transportation grants this week totaling more than $800 million under the bipartisan infrastructure law to states and localities that, for the first time, focus on road safety such as by adding bike lanes, lighting, protected left turns and sidewalks.

After a record spike in 2021, the number of U.S. traffic deaths dipped slightly during the first nine months of 2022, but pedestrian and cyclist deaths continued to rise. More than 40,000 people are killed in road crashes a year.

Its still a crisis, Buttigieg said, stressing a need for a national change in mindset. Were looking at road deaths coming in year after year in a similar proportion to gun deaths. The problem is theyre so widespread and so common that I fear as a country weve gotten used to it and perhaps fallen into the mistaken sense theyre inevitable.

We cant solve any of this on our own, he added. We also know there isnt one piece that will get this all down. But if we add all this together it can be enormous.

Road travelers will see an array of safety measures this year. Uber told the AP that it is donating $500,000 its single biggest investment in its effort to reduce drunken driving for free and discounted rides in Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri and Texas as part of the Decide to Ride program run in tandem with MADD and Anheuser-Busch.

The worlds largest ride-share company also said it was doubling the availability of its bike lane alerts this month from 71 cities to 144 for passengers exiting vehicles near cycling routes and providing a safety checklist for Uber Eats bicycle couriers. It also pledged to strengthen its seat belt alerts, such as by increasing their frequency or adding an audio message along with pop-up messages urging riders to buckle up.

We were thinking about how we could make an impact more broadly how we can get people to start making better choices, said Kristin Smith, head of Ubers road safety policy. We know its going to take a broad coalition of people to be tackling the crisis on U.S. roadways right now.

Ubers investment comes along with separate commitments from Lyft, the second-largest rideshare company, which has partnered with the Governors Highway Safety Association in recent years to award tens of thousands of dollars in state grants to help reduce impaired driving and curtail speeding.

3M, the maker of Post-it Notes, industrial coatings and ceramics, told the AP it was continuing its partnership with state transportation agencies to identify the best technology to make road signs and lane markings more visible and reflective.

Its already pledged to improve 100 school crossing zones and added to that a commitment of $250,000 this year for a new transportation equity initiative that will fund half a dozen major projects in underserved areas. The company cited as an example its partnership with nonprofit groups to help build out Providence, Rhode Islands, Hope Street Urban Trail last year, featuring new bike and pedestrian lanes connecting the neighborhood to schools and the commercial district.

Dan Chen, president of 3Ms Transportation Safety Division, praised the federal governments call for action as the right approach that will allow companies like 3M to work in sync with policymakers and other stakeholders to make roads safer for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.

Other businesses and groups joining the effort include American Honda Motor Co., which pledged continuing investments totaling $2 million to improve teen driver safety; UPS, which will install automatic emergency braking on its newer big delivery vehicles; and the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group, which will step up its push for industry adoption of safety technologies such as auto high beam.

The Transportation Department said it was issuing an open call for pledges, and more companies were expected to join in the coming weeks.

Buttigieg, noting the need for a sustained, multiyear effort to substantially reduce traffic fatalities, emphasized the opportunities as well with President Joe Bidens five-year $1 trillion infrastructure law and said much more work remained to rebuild public works and improve peoples livelihoods.

I definitely have four years worth of items and then some, he said, speaking of his job as transportation secretary.

Learn how to navigate and strengthen trust in your business with The Trust Factor, a weekly newsletter examining what leaders need to succeed. Sign up here.