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HYDERABAD, India (AP) Microsoft chairman Bill Gates visited India's software hub Thursday to talk business and immunize children, winding up a tour during which he pledged $500 million.

Gates met with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and health officials in Andhra Pradesh state to review progress made by a child immunization program funded by his foundation.

The Microsoft chief visited a health clinic in rural Mehbubnagar, 30 miles south of Hyderabad, the state capital, where he launched the second phase of the program that seeks to help more than 1 million Indian children each year.

With Naidu at his side, Gates toured the clinic and administered polio vaccines to several children.

''Is the hospital always full of patients like this?'' he asked doctors, who replied in the affirmative.

''I am so happy to visit the health clinic and meet the doctors and mothers, see vaccinations that work and see how excited the people are about the help for their children,'' Gates told the doctors.

The campaign intends to introduce the hepatitis B vaccine as part of routine immunization in the state. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $12.5 million for the five-year program.

There are about 43 million hepatitis B virus carriers in India who are at risk of chronic liver diseases, including liver cancer.

The project aims to save some 6,000 lives each year from complications resulting from hepatitis B infection.

On Monday, Gates pledged $100 million from his foundation to fight AIDS in India. He announced Tuesday that Microsoft would invest $400 million to expand his company's activities and promote computer literacy.

Gates praised Naidu, the state's top elected official, for speaking out in favor of AIDS prevention, still a taboo topic in many parts of India.

While the Indian government expressed gratitude for his grant to fight AIDS, some senior officials and health activists have accused him of using inflated figures. India rejected the U.S. National Intelligence Council report cited by Gates, which forecasts the number of HIV-infected people in India will rise to 20-25 million by 2010 from about 4 million now.

The Gates Foundation is funding $25 million in health projects in Andhra Pradesh, including development of an oral vaccine against severe diarrhea, which kills 250,000 children in India each year.

Hyderabad, a leader in India's computer software boom, is home to Microsoft's only software development center outside the United States. Gates was scheduled to visit the Microsoft center as well as the Satyam center, one of India's largest software firms.

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