celebrated by an organization whose mission states that 'every life has equal value and all people deserve healthy lives.' by giving modi this prestigious award, they noted, the gates foundation contributes in legitimizing the rule of modi. poverty and education policy critics say the bill & melinda gates foundation has overlooked the links between poverty and poor academic achievement and has unfairly demonized teachers for poor achievement by underprivileged students. they contend that the gates foundation should be embracing anti-poverty and living wage policies rather than pursuing untested and empirically unsupported education reforms. critics say that gates-backed reforms such as increasing the use of technology in education may financially benefit microsoft and the gates family. calls for divestment the foundation trust invests undistributed assets, with the exclusive goal of maximizing the return on investment. as a result, its investments include companies that have been criticized for worsening poverty in the same developing countries where the foundation is attempting to relieve poverty. these include companies that pollute heavily and pharmaceutical companies that do not sell into the developing world. in response to press criticism, the foundation announced in 2007 a review of its investments to assess social responsibility. it subsequently canceled the review and stood by its policy of investing for maximum return, while using voting rights to influence company practices. critics have called on the gates foundation to divest from the geo group, the second-largest private prison corporation in the united states. a large part of the prison's work involves incarcerating and detaining migrants that have been detained by the obama administration and the trump administration. in spring 2014, the gates foundation acknowledged its $2.2 million investment in the prison corporation. it rebuffed critics' request that it sever investment ties with the prison corporation. it has refused to comment on whether it is continuing its investments, as of 2016. awards in 2006, the foundation won the prince of asturias award for international cooperation. in 2007, then-president of india pratibha devisingh patil presented the indira gandhi prize for peace, disarmament and development to the bill & melinda gates foundation. in recognition of the foundation's philanthropic activities in india, bill and melinda gates jointly received india's third highest civilian honor padma bhushan in 2015. on november 22, 2016, president barack obama honored bill and melinda gates with the presidential medal of freedom for their philanthropic efforts.