Gates impressed with state IT initiatives

NEW DELHI: Bill Gates, the software monarch and the chief software architect

of Microsoft Corp was highly impressed with the IT initiatives taken by the

state governments. Addressing a press conference after a meeting with 10 chief

ministers and representatives of other states, Gates said, "I am highly

impressed with the political leaders of India. They are talking of e-governance

initiatives and projects on how to use IT for education. Almost each state has

lined up some innovative package or the other. I really appreciate the way the

government is embracing IT." He also complimented the state governments on

the initiatives they were taking to increase the number of IT trained manpower

in the country.

He almost got a round of applause, when he further added, "Even the US

government is not taking as many initiatives. I have now some examples to take

back to them."

When asked which state in his opinion would be best suited for Microsoft's

investments, he said, "I don't want to pick on any one of the states. There

is a very friendly competition among them and we want to partner with all of

them."

Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu, on his way to the closed door meeting

with Gates, was very optimistic. Said he, "We are going to present to him

the initiatives we have taken in Andhra." On asking whether he would ask

Gates to invest in the state, he said, "That's what we have been asking for

the past five years."

Gates also applauded the Indian education system and noted that it was

because of this robust system that India was able to play a major role in the

global software scenario. Responding to a question on whether India's software

pool became popular because of its lower costs, Gates refused categorically.

"India is not the cheapest place. It’s the quality that has made it so

popular." He further added that people might have been attracted to India

initially because of the lower costs, but ultimately it is the quality that

counts.