Bill Gates slammed for calling India 'laboratory to try things'

Bill Gates was slammed on social media X for calling India a "kind of laboratory to try things" in a recent podcast. The clip from the podcast with Reid Hoffman went viral drawing flak from Indian commentators. "India is an example of a country where there's plenty of things that are difficult there -- the health, education, nutrition is 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 and it's kind of a laboratory to try things that then when you prove them out in India, you can take to other places," Bill Gates said.

"And so our biggest non-US office for the Foundation is in India and the most number of pilot roll out things we're doing anywhere in the world are with partners in India," Bill Gates said.




"If you go there and you've never been you might think whoa this is a chaotic place and you know you're not used to so many levels of income all being on the street at the same time but you will get a sense of vibrancy," Gates said.

"The human beings in India are samples for Bill Gates’ laboratory to try things and once they are proven to be effective, taken to the US. This clip doesn’t sound right no matter in what context you hear this. That’s why researches backed by governments can often have vested interests. Didn’t @elonusk raise this as well?" one user wrote.

Bill Gates visited India earlier this year. His trip focused on Gates Foundation work and included multiple stops. Gates visited the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi; visited Microsoft India Development Center in Hyderabad; went to Odisha.