From the Chief Mentor's Desk:

It has been more than 20 years of fighting the global battle against HIV/AIDS and it is clear that there are complex linkages between AIDS and development. The development gaps such as gender inequality and poverty enhance people’s vulnerability to HIV transmission and, yet, at the same time, the HIV epidemic itself poses a major obstacle to the development.

Recent trends show that HIV/AIDS is now spreading from high-risk behavior groups to the general population and is fast spreading from high prevalence states to every state in the country.

Hence, the need to strengthen our existing programmes and develop new modes to reach the masses. Business community can respond in varied ways, and each sector in the business community can use its expertise to address this pressing public health issue.

One such sector that CII has been trying to involve is the Information Technology and IT enabled services (ITeS). CII and the World Bank Institute are joining hands to advocate and facilitate a program for the IT Industry for prevention and care workplace intervention.

Its only when we take on the initiative to reach out to the general population as well as high risk behaviour groups, can we avoid HIV from becoming an obstacle in development.