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India an unavoidable R&D destination: Bill Gates

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CIOL Bureau
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NEW DELHI, INDIA: Microsoft founder Bil Gates said that a brilliant talent pool in India makes it an unavoidable destination for research activity.

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While addressing the media here today Gates also appealed the companies worldwide to focus more on research.

“It (research) can contribute to various development in the world, and simultaneously add to the companies' product portfolios,” said Gates. “We have to create computers that can see, understand, and translate different spoken language into other; we have to create computers that are safe and secure.”

He said such things require a lot of research. “Research is vital for all things that we do. Every company should put more into research whether it's healthcare, energy or any other sector.”

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The Microsoft founder also observed that the outcome of research can be developed into a good product.

Patting on the back of his research team in India, Bill Gates acknowledged India as an important destination for research.

“India had been instrumental in contributing to the basic and some of high-end work of Microsoft. When I started the research facility in India everyone said 'don't expect anything to come before four to five years, but India team has delivered in less time than our expectation,” he added.

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Bill Gates is in India to receive the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament, and Development on behalf of the Gates Foundation.

Urges India to move from low-cost to R&D

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Bill Gates also urged India to move away from low-cost labour toward high-end research and development to keep its giant IT sector competitive. He observed that India government should speed up its commitment to R&D and to boost low number of home-grown PhD students.

"At first some of that (IT boom) was built on low-cost labour. And, of course, as time goes on, you don't want to have that as the only differentiator and it's not a sustainable thing, because others can come along with that as well," Gates said.

India's R&D sector has made strides in recent years and attracted some big foreign hitters, including Microsoft, in keeping with its IT- and service-driven economic boom.

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But hampered by structural problems and a lack of government commitment, India's R&D still lags behind the United States and Asian rival China. China has more than 1,100 R&D centres compared to less than 800 in India.

"Leading companies here are contributing a lot of ideas and techniques. Even more of that has to happen and bring it to its full potential," Gates said. "You've got to get the government, universities ... and companies like Microsoft to deepen their commitment to R&D."

(Reuters contributed to this story)

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