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Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates and his wife Melinda made a stop in the Bangladesh capital Monday, on his first trip to the South Asian nation. While he was in Dhaka, he met with Bangladesh's Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.

Gates was reported saying that he was "pleased to see such progress to bridge the digital divide and grow the software industry in an emerging market like Bangladesh? The results ... can only come through strong partnership between the industry and the government." This is part of Mr. Gates? larger aim when he plans a four day visit to India on Tuesday.

Gates will meet with senior officials as well as programmers and business leaders to outline Microsoft's long-announced plans to invest $400 million in India in the following years. India is also known for taking huge chunks of the tech market away from the U.S.

His itinerary covers meetings with key government officials in addition to business leaders, academicians, industry associations and policy makers. Gates' public engagements include a CII hosted CEO Forum in New Delhi on December 7, 2005, and a Developers Forum in Bangalore on December 9, 2005.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates will be visiting Bangalore on December 9 to attend the launch of his company's integrated computing platform - SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006.

During his visit, he would address developers and IT professionals in an event being held at the Palace Grounds, Microsoft India officials said here today.

Titled "Bill Gates LIVE in Bangalore -- Ready 2005", the event marks the launch of Microsoft's integrated computing platform - SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006, they said.

Elaborating on Microsoft's India focus, Ravi Venkatesan, chairman, Microsoft India, said, "India is not just the fastest growing subsidiary for Microsoft, but is also one of the few subsidiaries where Microsoft has an end to end presence of its entire business portfolio. Research, product development, application development, services delivery and technical support, it's all here and contributing significantly in the global growth. India is very high on Microsoft's priorities."

"Equally important to us is our effort towards enabling India's growth as an economic superpower and we have made tremendous efforts in the past few years towards this. Our programs of Project Shiksha, Project Bhasha, Project Jyoti and the unique customized solutions for the Indian market are all geared towards creating a digitally inclusive society. Gates' visit will focus further on realising India's Potential", said Venkatesan.