Similarly, 254 women out of every 100,000 live births are losing their battle against life during pregnancy and child delivery.

Azad also appraised Gates and his associates about the universal immunisation programme - the road map for introduction of new vaccines to cover more preventable diseases. In this context, he also appreciated the efforts being made by the Gates Foundation to discover and develop new vaccines.

The minister also appealed to Gates for his continued support to the health programmes in India, the ministry statement said. The statement also said that Gates congratulated India for its leadership on AIDS prevention, which he said can be a model for the rest of the world.