Bill Gates Faces Flak For His 'India Is A Laboratory To Try Things' Remark; Watch Here

The ex-Microsoft CEO highlighted the country's progress in health, nutrition, and education and predicted significant advancements in these areas over the coming decades

Bill Gates, the former Microsoft CEO and philanthropist, faced backlash online after describing India as a “kind of laboratory to try things” during a podcast with Reid Hoffman. A brief clip of Gates’ comments, made in the context of India’s development, went viral on social media, sparking a range of reactions from internet users.

The ex-Microsoft CEO visited India earlier this year for work with the Gates Foundation and met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He highlighted the country's progress in health, nutrition, and education and predicted significant advancements in these areas over the coming decades.

“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 said in the podcast. 

Speaking about India’s role in innovation, Gates said, “It’s kind of a laboratory to try things that, once proven in India, can be scaled to other regions.” He also noted that India is home to the Gates Foundation’s largest office outside the US and serves as the location for the Foundation's most extensive pilot programs worldwide.

However, the term "laboratory" sparked backlash from many social media users, who accused Gates of reducing India to an experimental ground.

One user remarked, "Hahahah. "Health nutrition and education is improving" the land which has a history of thousands of years in #Ayurveda #granthas #vedas ... never knew mr gates @BillGates was so so poor in history.”

Another user added, “What exactly you mean by we being made into Guinea pigs? Pilots are run all the time. It may be in the context of new medicines, new vaccines, or new development initiatives. You take a small subset of population, in a restricted geographic area, test your ideas, if the work, implement it in wider scale. That's how it is done. Either by Bill Gates, or even by our Indian agencies. There are clear guidelines on how these pilots are to be conducted, and if Gates is violating any of them, then you can complain.”