Bill Gates, the head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Chairman of Microsoft Corporation has described the eradication of polio is India’s biggest achievement in the whole of previous decade.

India marked two years without any reported case of polio in the country. Ajay Khera, Deputy Commissioner in the Union Health Ministry had said that the no cases of wild polio have been reported in the country since twenty two months. The World Health Organisation (WHO) had taken India out of the list of polio-endemic nations in February 2012 but the country will have to remain free of the disease for two more years.

Gates praised the effectiveness of the polio eradication campaign in India, which involved volunteers spanning across the country on immunisation days. He pointed out that the importance of micro-level delivery mechanisms adopted by the country for the success of the campaign. He said that the quality of execution is a concern in the country and that India has a long way to go in other areas.

Gates has a fortune estimated by Forbes at $66 billion and his charity has an asset base of $32.6 billion.