Gates Talks Health, Business In India
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates visited tech-savvy Andhra Pradesh state on Thursday to talk business and immunize children, winding up an Indian tour during which he pledged to pump $500 million into the country.
Gates met with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and senior health officials to review the progress of a child immunization program funded by his foundation.
He visited a community health clinic in rural Mehbubnagar, 31 miles south of the state capital Hyderabad, and launched the second phase of a hepatitis B immunization program aimed at helping more than 1 million Indian children each year.
Gates toured the clinic, administering doses of oral polio vaccine to several children.
"Is the hospital always full of patients like this?" he asked doctors, who said it was.
"I am so happy to visit the health clinic and meet the doctors and mothers, see vaccinations that work and see how excited the people are about the help for their children," Gates told the doctors.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $12.5 million for the five-year immunization program.
There are about 43 million hepatitis B virus carriers in India who are at risk of chronic liver diseases, including liver cancer.
In Shadnagar, a town near the clinic, hundreds of people lined the road and perched on rooftops, hoping to glimpse the richest man in the world.
"I know the man who has come is a very, very rich person from America and he is helping our state," said shop owner Lakshamaiah, who goes by only one name.
On Monday, Gates pledged $100 million from his foundation to fight AIDS in India. He announced Tuesday that Microsoft would invest $400 million to expand his company's activities and promote computer literacy.
Gates praised Naidu, the state's top elected official, for speaking out in favor of AIDS prevention — still a taboo topic in many parts of India.
The Indian government thanked Gates for his grant to fight AIDS, but some senior officials and health activists have accused him of mentioning inflated figures about the extent of the disease. India rejected the U.S. National Intelligence Council report cited by Gates, which forecasts the number of HIV-infected people in India will rise to 20-25 million by 2010 from about 4 million now.
Gates' foundation is funding $25 million in health projects in Andhra Pradesh, including development of an oral vaccine against severe diarrhea, which kills 250,000 children in India each year.
Hyderabad, a leader in India's computer software boom, is home to Microsoft's only software development center outside the United States. Gates was scheduled to visit the Microsoft center as well as the Satyam center, one of India's largest software firms.
By Omer Farooq