Gates Foundation Pledges USD1B to India

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropy, has pledged some USD1 billion for health initiatives benefiting impoverished villages in India as of January this year, The Economic Times reports.

Resources are focused on programs to eradicate polio, a curable disease that is still prevalent in India.

“We are on the home stretch. It’s the last half-mile of tackling polio,” said Melinda Gates on a recent trip to India. “It’s endemic in four countries — India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan. If we get polio eliminated from India, it gives us the momentum. The millions of dollars spent on it could be spent elsewhere. Look at what we would have spent if small-pox (completely eradicated) was still around.”