Recession likely to continue for six months, says Bill Gates

Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, expects US economy to reel under global financial slow down for more than six months. However, Gates hopes, the rapid economic and technological advancements made by emerging economies like China and India in last decade will see to it that slow down impact is temporary. "There is no doubt that there is going to be economic crisis in the US. There are imbalances in the US and economy will have weakness," said Gates.

"I can not predict whether the financial crisis will be two years or three years, but it will be more than six month and then the economy will get back on track" forecasted Gates. Addressing the packed gathering here at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Gates however sounded confident in his assessment that global economy has changed enough to ward of crisis resulting from meltdown in the housing market and heavy consumer debt.

"If you look at the world and US economy since 1990, the results have been really phenomenal. The fact that India has liberalized and grown it economy.. The fact that China is now a global player. The world economy benefits from this scale, being able to trade products and being able to collaborate with brilliant minds", said Gates.

"It won’t be a long term impact. I take five or ten year’s view. Company like Microsoft are not cutting back on it research. The benefits of these researches will be delivered on time,” added Gates.

"Even though we are going to have a little bit of challenge in the US, we are not going to erase the policy maps the we have made, nor are we going to stop from going back on the map” added Gates.

"New medicines, new materials, are coming as planned in the next decade,", he added.
Gates added that US economic downturn need not be extended to other countries. “I think markets have overreacted", he added.

Talking about their research projects here, Gates said that in their research laboratory here - half of whose staff are from the IITs - developed a medium through which the farming community can benefit.

"They would have wanted to give the farmers a personal computer, but knowing the limitations, they developed a video DVD in which they filmed farmers using the best farming practices and talking in local languages. These practices were later reviewed by experts and presented in an appealing manner," Gates noted.

"Of course, a more interactive medium would have been better and we are working towards it. But for now, the farming community is happy to sit around a TV set in a village and pick up practices that benefit them," Gates said.