The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) has approved funding assistance of US$ 260 million to India over a five-year period.

The various proposals that were submitted by India and approved by the Board are US $ 165 million to support the project for the provision of Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) to one lakh people living with HIV/AIDS in India, US$ 69 million towards the extension of the Malaria Control Programme and US$ 26 million for the extension of the National Tuberculosis Control Programme.

Initially, the GFATM will sign a two-year agreement with India, which will be renewed for another period of three years, subject to satisfactory performance.

The board of the GFATM took this decision at its on-going 8th meeting in Geneva on June 30, 2004. Union Health Secretary J V R Prasada Rao is attending this meeting on behalf of the Union Health & Family Welfare Minister, Dr Anbumani Ramdoss as the Board Member representing the South East Asian Region of the World Health Organization.

The chairman of the board of the GFATM is United States Health Secretary Tommy Thompson.