Home > Business > PTI > Report

Govt for greater corporate role to fight AIDS

October 13, 2003 14:00 IST

Describing AIDS as a major challenge to human survival, the government on Monday said that the corporate sector must play a greater role by forging public-private partnerships to fight the dreaded disease.

"Now is the time for corporates to supplement the efforts of the government and other stakeholders, and commit resources," Minister of State for Commerce and Industry S B Mookherji said at a CII summit on AIDS in New Delhi.

"In this context, corporates can, perhaps, play a meaningful role in making available the highly expensive drugs for drug therapy," he said.

The summit, attended by Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Sons; Richard Holbrooke, chief executive officer, Global Business Coalition on HIV; Anne Peterson, assistant administrator, Bureau for Global Health, USAID; and Heather Burns, senior vice president, Booz Allen Hamilton, stressed on a greater corporate participation in mitigating the disease.

Pointing out that it was not a matter of statistics, the minister said that the disease could have a serious impact on corporates by affecting their productivity.

Ratan Tata said that the business community had not been forthcoming so far, but it had to now put its best foot forward so that the spread of the disease can be curbed.

"It is a national, global calamity. A battle which we will all have to fight together. It calls for action not just from the government alone, but contribution by way of public-private partnership to attack the endemic," Tata said.


Article Tools

Email this Article

Printer-Friendly Format

Letter to the Editor




Related Stories


HIV+ person to toss coin in Test



People Who Read This Also Read


Foreign funds harm AIDS fight

AIDS: UNICEF to educate Kerala






© Copyright 2003 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.











Copyright © 2003 rediff.com India Limited. All Rights Reserved.