Gates:Indians helped build Microsoft

[Guest guest]

Bill Gates wants to give something back to India

New Delhi, Nov 8

 

US software mogul Bill Gates says he wants to contribute to India's

healthcare programmes in areas such as children's vaccinations and

AIDS prevention because Indians had helped him build his company

Microsoft, a report said Thursday.

 

Gates, whose 43-billion-dollar fortune makes him the world's

wealthiest person, arrives here Monday for a four-day visit packed

with meetings with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Deputy

Prime Minister L K Advani, industrialists and AIDS activists.

 

Security arrangements for the computer king, according to officials,

are similar to those reserved for visiting heads of state. Gates

recently announced that India was a potential "software superpower."

 

"India is a super, super important country for the world, for the

software industry and Microsoft in particular," Gates told the Times

of India newspaper.

 

"It has contributed an amazing amount to the software industry and to

Microsoft in particular. A high percentage of our great people come

from India, several of our key partners are based there, so there is

a desire to give something back because of that."

 

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation does charity work here and

along with the World Bank and Rockefeller Foundation is supporting

the development of an India-specific anti-AIDS vaccine.

 

Last year, the health ministry and Indian Council of Medical Research

(ICMR), signed a pact with the US-based International AIDS Vaccine

Initiative(IAVI), to develop an anti-AIDS vaccine appropriate for use

in India.

 

The first phase of clinical trials could start in New Delhi in late

2003.

 

India announced in March that it had 3.97 million HIV-positive cases,

the largest HIV-positive population in the world after South Africa.

Unofficial estimates put the figure at closer to five million.

 

Dr Vijay Mehra from IAVI says an "efficacious vaccine could take up

to 12 years to develop" and cost over 350 million dollars.

 

"India is also at a very early stage in the AIDS epidemic, so if

things are done now, we can prevent it from becoming widespread. I am

very lucky to have the resources I have and am committed to give

those back," Gates told the paper.

 

"The cost of prevention at this stage versus the cost of treating

people later on is so dramatically different. That is why we have to

highlight the cause now," he added.

 

Kaushik Bose, speaking on behalf of his client IAVI, said

Gates "would meet various NGOs, health department officials and anti-

AIDS activists."

 

"When a man of Gates stature speaks, people listen. That is why his

third visit to India to create AIDS awareness is so important," said

Bose.

 

Microsoft has had a presence in India since 1987, with offices in

five Indian cities including Bangalore.