Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates called India a ‘laboratory’

Netizens express anger

New Delhi – Bill Gates, in a podcast where he called India a “kind of laboratory to try things”, also talked about climate change, energy, global health, and education.

Bill Gates’ recent podcast with Reid Hoffman went viral, but it didn’t sit well with desi commentators after the tech mogul called India a “kind of laboratory to try things.” His remark left many fuming, with people calling him out for his comment.

1. “India is an example of a country where there’s plenty of things that are difficult there – the health, nutrition, education is improving and they are stable enough and generating their own government revenue enough that it’s very likely that 20 years from now people will be dramatically better off and it’s kind of a laboratory to try things that then when you prove them out in India, you can take to other places,” Bill Gates said in the podcast.

2. After Bill Gates’ statement, there has also been a discussion about the vaccine trials conducted in India by the Bill Gates Foundation in the year 2009. In 2009, an NGO called ‘PATH’, in collaboration with the ‘Indian Council of Medical Research’ (ICMR), tested a cervical cancer vaccine in India. ‘PATH’ received funding from the Gates Foundation. During this trial, about 14,000 tribal school girls from Telangana and Gujarat were vaccinated; but a few months after the vaccination, serious side effects were seen in the students and seven of them died.

Editorial Perspective

Just as some experiments in the laboratory succeed, some fail. Similarly, Western countries and their establishments use Indians to test their new products and put their lives at risk. Gates’ statement shows the inferior attitude of the West. To destroy this attitude, India needs to become a superpower by becoming competent in all fields.