Bill Gates under fire for calling India a 'laboratory to try things'
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New Delhi: Former Microsoft CEO and philanthropist Bill Gates has faced backlash on social media for describing India in a podcast as a ‘kind of laboratory to try things’.
In an hour-long podcast with Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates talked about India’s progress in health, nutrition, and education, before predicting major advancement in the country in the coming decades.
Gates, who met PM Modi during a visit to the country earlier this year, termed India an example where things that were difficult such as ‘health, nutrition, education are improving’.
‘India is an example of a country where there are plenty of things that are difficult – the health, nutrition, education are 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,’ Gates was quoted as saying.
As he went on talking about India’s innovation, Gates termed India a ‘kind of laboratory’ to try things, alongside saying that when things are proved out in India, they could be taken to other places.
Adding that India hosts his Foundation’s largest non-US office, Gates said that the country is the site for most of the pilot rollouts worldwide.
Gates’ use of the term “laboratory” provoked many on social media who accused Gates of turning India into a place for experiments.
One user responded to Gates saying ‘Please stay out of India’, while another pointed out that ‘Indians get too much influenced by skin colour’.
A third user asserted ‘This school dropout should be banned from entering India.’
