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Gates keen to meet PM, Advani during visit

Bipin Chandran

Bill Gates’ third visit to the country will also be his longest, his first visit in 1997 lasted all of one day, while the second in 2000 was for two days.

Unlike his earlier visits, this time Gates is coming only to India without clubbing the visit with other countries in the region.

Flying in directly from Seattle, Gates has a busy schedule in India. He has sought meetings with the president, the prime minister and the deputy prime minister, besides the union finance and IT ministers, during his four days in India.

Apart from them, the who's who of the country's corporate world will also try to catch pearls of wisdom from the world's richest man when he is hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry and National Association of Software and Services Companies.

During his sojourn beginning November 11, Gates--the man who earns $300 (Rs 15,000) every second-- will have private meetings with the likes of Infosys chairman and chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy, Wipro chief Azim Premji and Satyam chairman Ramalinga Raju.

Gates is also expected to meet chief ministers of different states during his stay in the country. In his last trip, as many as 10 chief ministers tried to hardsell their states and woo him to make investments in their respective states.

Gates will also address Indian software engineers in Hyderabad and Bangalore.

"In these two cities his itinerary is mainly oriented towards the developer community," says Rajiv Kaul, managing director, Microsoft Corporation India.

Gates has another agenda in Andhra Pradesh. He will also visit sites in conjunction with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's $25 million grant to the Partnership Project in Andhra Pradesh--a joint project between the Childrens Vaccine Program at Program for Appropriate Technologies in Health and the government of Andhra Pradesh--to introduce Hepatitis B vaccine and strengthen the overall infant immunization program in the state.

Gates will be accompanied by a delegation from the foundation- his Seattle-based trust which has an endowment of approximately $24 billion.

It is also expected that Gates will announce some investments plan for the company's India Development Centre at Hyderabad.

"India is key to our global strategy, which is evident from the fact that this is an exclusive trip to India and not part of the regional tour. The company is committed to invest in the country in the long-term," Kaul says.

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