NEW DELHI, Nov 11 (AFP) - Microsoft head and the world's richest man Bill Gates on Monday announced he would give 100 million dollars to a health care programme to combat the spread of HIV-AIDS in India.
"India is uniquely positioned not only to address its own HIV-AIDS challenges and save millions of lives, but also to help other developing countries with emerging epidemics," Gates told a news conference.
Gates arrived in India on Monday on a four-day visit in which he has given high priority to the health programme.
"With some of the best research capabilities anywhere, India is poised to be a global leader in the development of new HIV prevention technologies," he added.
The programme, he said, would help "mobile populations" such as truck drivers, migrants and labourers, who are most vulnerable to the disease.
"Currently, few HIV prevention programmes in India address populations that frequently cross state borders.
"The initiative will combat societal stigma surrounding the disease and increase awareness on HIV-AIDS through a nationwide communication and advocacy effort."
Indian Health Minister Shatrughan Sinha Saturday accused Gates and the US ambassador here, Robert Blackwill, of "spreading panic" over HIV-AIDS for endorsing a study that predicted there would be 20-25 million Indians infected with HIV by 2010.
"Our foundation is not involved in that particular study. That is not our area of expertise. My point is not about a particular number, but without taking an alarmist's view I can say there is no doubt a serious challenge that India faces here," said Gates.
"The idea that people should debate what is the number, gather more statistics and try to fathom the extent of the problem is a fantastically constructive thing."
Sinha had played down the results of the study conducted by a US agency, saying: "I don't think anyone should contribute to spreading panic among the general public."
"It is completely inaccurate to claim that India will have over 25 million people living with HIV by 2010," Sinha said.
India announced in March that some 3.97 million Indians are living with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, more than any country other than South Africa.
Anti-AIDS activists say the disease is spreading in India because young people are increasingly promiscuous but are not learning about safe sex due to the prudishness of the Hindu nationalist-led government and society at large.
Gates, however, said he found Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, whom he met here Monday afternoon, very receptive to tackling AIDS.
"The prime minister spent a lot of time with us knowing that we would be discussing the subject of AIDS. I was impressed with how knowledgable he was. He expressed his appreciation for the work we were doing," Gates said.
"He talked a lot about the need to raise visibility and think creatively about tackling the issue."
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.
"IAVI is reaching out to companies, people and the medical community at large to see how an India-specific anti-AIDS vaccine can be developed," said Gates.
"Our foundation will only be involved in clinical trials with very high ethical standards that are approved and endorsed by the government of India."
India's weekly Outlook magazine had alleged that the anti-AIDS vaccine would be administered to illiterate and poor Indians who would be encouraged to indulge in unsafe sex to test whether the vaccine really works.
IAVI says an "efficacious vaccine could take up to 12 years to develop" and cost over 350 million dollars.
Meanwhile Rajat Gupta, a member of the public-private Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, who shared a platform with Gates at a function here announced that India would get a "significant chunk" of the fund's 600-million-dollar corpus.
"India has submitted a number of proposals to us. We have already cleared one proposal and are in the process of evaluating another significant AIDS-related proposal," said Gupta, who also heads the US consultancy group McKinsey.
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