Bill Gates gives $100m to fight AIDS

Bill Gates gives $100m to fight AIDS

INDIA: Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates announced on Monday a US$100 million grant to battle HIV/AIDS in India, which has the world's second largest number of victims of the deadly disease.

The announcement came at the start of a four-day visit by Gates to India. The donation was the largest single-country grant by his charity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a foundation spokeswoman said.

A foundation statement said the India AIDS Initiative would work to provide mobile populations better access to proven HIV- prevention interventions.

The drive would target truck drivers and migrant laborers, among others, who are seen as vulnerable to HIV infection.

India has four million HIV-positive cases, the highest after South Africa. Some reports estimate the number of people afflicted in India could reach 20 million by 2010.

Some 20 percent of Microsoft's engineers are of Indian origin. --Reuters