Am I looking for conspiracies where they don't exist when I read <a href="http://www.businessworldindia.com/cover2.htm">The Importance Of Being In India</a> in <a href="http://www.businessworldindia.com/">Business World India</a> and this article, <a href="http://www.canada.com/health/story.html?id=%7B23FCBF79-F43D-4251-ADD7-166F5D84F3D0%7D" title="Bill Gates pledges $100 million to fight AIDS in India, meets patients">Bill Gates pledges $100 million to fight AIDS in India</a> on <a href="http://www.canada.com/">Canada.com</a> on the same day and wonder whether the two are connected? I mean, Gates himself said that <iq>...[h]e worried that India's enormous progress in information technology - the country has the only Microsoft software development centre outside the United States - would be thwarted by AIDS.</iq> At this point, I don't expect (and view with suspicion) any supposed altruism on behalf of probably the most rapacious businessman in America. In <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/">The Times of India</a>, <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?art_id=28006458">Gates gives India more than Africa for AIDS</a> quotes Gates as saying further that <iq>[t]here is so much promise from the great talent in this country that AIDS should not limit it.</iq> Again, noble-sounding, but considering that <iq>last year, India purchased packaged software worth $409 million - of which 80% were Microsoft products</iq>, how altruistic is it? Is it really possible that he's <i>investing</i> US$100 Million in the population of India in order to keep it alive long enough to buy more Microsoft products? No, even I don't believe that. :-) Is it possible that it's just a happy coincidence that he can help humanity and increase his personal wealth at the same time? Yeah, that's possible. Especially when, as seen in the title of the article, Africa, which has <i>far</i> worse of an AIDS problem, doesn't rate as much as India, whose <iq>number of HIV carriers has stabilized to 3.5 million to four million - 0.7 per cent of its adult population - - over the last three years</iq>. It might explain why Gates is quoting a disputed <iq>recent U.S. National Intelligence Council report that predicts the number of HIV-infected people in India will rise to 20-25 million by 2010</iq>. India's Health Minister regards the report as <iq>completely inaccurate</iq>. However, the inflated number suits Gates purposes since he can more easily rationalize giving money to a country that also tends to buy a lot more software (and Microsoft software, specifically) than Africa does. <bq>Estimates put the present size of India's developer population at anywhere between 450,000 and 600,000. That's about 10% of the world's developer population. By end-2002, India will probably have more developers than any country in the world. This is why it is important to gain control of this population.</bq> With the recent loss of government agencies in India and China (see <a href="http://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=719">Linux Gains Ground Abroad</a>), it seems Microsoft should be very interested in shoring up support in one of the largest countries in the world. Perhaps it's just a happy coincidence that Gates's Foundation is giving money to a country that is die-hard Microsoft, but in which recently <iq>Linux has made inroads into the Indian landscape</iq>. The other question to ask is in what form this charity is given. If it's in the form of Microsoft licenses "donated" to hospitals or whether it's actual cash which the hospitals, agencies or government is allowed to spend on the services it needs to combat AIDS. Perhaps I'm just being too suspicious again (although it would be reminiscent of those generous aid packages given by the US, in which the receiving country is required by contract to use a large percentage of the grant on specific US companies, usually weapons manufacturers). Perhaps also it would be too cynical to ask just how much charity you need to give in order to make a dent in the taxes levied on a fortune <iq>which stood at $43 billion in September [2002]</iq>. However, if it's truly unabashed, unreserved cynical reporting you want, it's one-stop shopping at <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/">The Register</a> in <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/28039.html">Billg tosses coins to India's poor, touts MS</a> in which they say: <bq>... he's gone off to India for a bit of philanthropic pandering to women and children, and selling of MS products to developers. The actual selling will be handled by legions of MS flacks, not Gates, to help establish the illusion that this trip is purely humanitarian in nature. ... [T]here is something profoundly tasteless in donating money to avert human suffering as part of a commercial publicity campaign, and touting it so publicly.</bq> As for the wealth of coverage the <a href="http://www.nyt.com">New York Times</a> is offering on Bill's trip, The Register is reasonably <iq>certain it has nothing to do with the NYT's whopping share of the MSN-8 advertising budget</iq>.