'N India has greatest needs and most difficult challenges'

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Mar 11 (PTI) Bill Gates, engaged in a large
number of social projects in India, has told US lawmakers that
the northern parts of the south Asian country faces difficult
challenges.

"We see places like India, where the results are mixed.
The north, which has the greatest need, tends to have the most
difficult challenges," Gates told members of the powerful
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wherein he testified on
"Building on Success: New Directions in Global Health Care",
convened by its Chairman John Kerry.
Former US President Bill Clinton, who too is involved in
social welfare projects in India and African countries in a
big way, also testified before the Committee.
Gates was responding to question about experiences of
corruption and accountability in these countries where his
Bill and Milinda Gates Foundation is involved in social
welfare projects.
In places like India, he said, there are mixed results.
"Fortunately, things like vaccines or bed nets are not
that attractive for the political elite to stockpile. And so
if you can track the grants to the purchase of the commodity
and the commodity getting delivered, then you can make quite
sure the money's not being diverted. It gets more difficult as
you get into personnel systems," he observed.
However, this is difficulty with education,
road-building, and even health systems to make sure that the
work is actually being done, jobs just aren't being given to
the politically favoured, as opposed to the people who have
the skill sets. More PTI LKJ
AHM


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