Bill Gates faces backlash for calling India a 'laboratory to try things'

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has sparked criticism on social media after describing India as a “kind of laboratory to try things" during a recent podcast with Reid Hoffman. A clip from the podcast, where Gates discussed India’s challenges and improvements, has gone viral, prompting strong reactions from users online.

Gates, who visited India earlier this year for Gates Foundation work and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said that the country is making progress in health, nutrition, and education. He also predicted major advancements in the coming decades.

“India is an example of a country where there are plenty of things that are difficult – the health, nutrition, and education are improving, and they are stable enough and generating their own government revenue enough that it’s very likely that 20 years from now, people will be dramatically better off,” Gates said in the podcast.

Referring to India’s role in innovation, he added, “It’s kind of a laboratory to try things that, when you prove them out in India, you can take to other places.” Gates also pointed out that India hosts the Foundation’s largest non-US office and is the site for the most pilot rollouts worldwide.

However, the term “laboratory” didn’t sit well with several social media users as they accused Gates of reducing India to an experimental ground. A user said, “Indians get too much influenced by skin colour,” while another added, “Please stay out of India.”

One user expressed frustration towards Bill Gates, stating, “India is a laboratory, and we Indians are Guinea Pigs for Bill Gates. This person has managed everyone from the Government to opposition parties to the media. His office operates here without FCRA, and our education system has made him a hero! I don’t know when we will wake up!

One other user called Bill Gates “disgusting," commenting, “India is his lab and the people of India & other 3rd world countries his lab rats. He is DISGUSTING!! This dude doesn’t even have an HS diploma and he is poisoning everything!!"

His remarks, while intended to highlight India's progress and its collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have revived a controversial 2009 clinical trial -- funded by Gates' foundation -- which killed seven tribal schoolgirls and left many others severely ill.

Critics argue the 2009 vaccine trials are just one example of how India and other developing nations have been used as testing grounds by organisations with foreign funding. “Who knows how many Gates-funded NGOs are conducting similar trials in India and Africa? It's disturbing how easily they access our governance and policies, while openly treating us as guinea pigs,” the skin doctor concluded.