Gates announces $23-m grant to India

On the day he quits Microsoft to work for social sector projects, software pioneer Bill Gates announced $ 23-million grant to India to control HIV/AIDS in the country. The grant would be spent through the National AIDS Control Organisation in India over the next three years. The announcement was made when Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss called upon him at his office in Seattle, United States. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has already announced a grant of $ 58 million for the prevention of HIV/AIDS through the Avahan Programme for a period of five years.

Gates appreciated the Minister’s efforts in improving the health sector in India and for the effective implementation of the National Rural Health Mission. In response to Gates’ query about the polio situation in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Ramadoss said that the government has initiated steps for its eradication.

At a separate meeting of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Ramadoss discussed the polio situation in UP and Bihar, the tobacco control programme and the AIDS scenario in India amongst other issues. He also made an appeal for popularizing yoga the world over.