With A Few Honourable Exceptions, India's Wealthy Are Not Generous Enough
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
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By Linus Garg
First publised on 2022-10-26 06:24:49
About the Author
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
View all posts by this Author
The latest
(2022) edition of the EdelGive Harun India Philanthropy List is out. Shiv Nadar
of HCL Tech is once again India's top philanthropist, having donated Rs 1161cr
last year. He was pipped to the post last year by Wipro's Azim Premji who stood
second this year with donations of Rs 484cr. At number three and four were
Mukesh Ambani (Rs 411cr) and Kumar Mangalam Birla (Rs 242cr). India's richest
man, Gautam Adani, was at number seven with just Rs 190cr in donations. Fifteen people made an annual donation of over Rs 100cr, while 20 people
donated over Rs 50cr and 43 donated over Rs 20cr. Given the scale of
wealth generation in India, with a sizeable number of new billionaires popping
up every year, it seems most of those who have prospered have not yet
understood the power of giving.
Although India has laws which require profit-making
companies (after a threshold) to give back to society, those are mandatory. The
real power of giving comes when the rich donate out of their own wealth. In
this, Shiv Nadar and Azim Premji have been consistent and have been top donors
for many years. Since Gautam Adani has seen his wealth grow by leaps and bounds
in the last two years, it was expected that he will show matching generosity and donate
some of his massive wealth to top the list. But that has not happened. Maybe
with time Adani (and Ambani too) will compete in donating too as they do in
most other businesses.
The private charitable initiatives of wealthy
individuals go a long way in supplementing the efforts of the government in bettering
the lives of the marginalized and the downtrodden and make for a better
society. This is mainly because these wealthy individuals, through their charitable
foundations, can take up projects in a more focused way, identify areas where the
government is either not present or not doing enough and ensure that the
benefits reach the people without leakages. Hence, it is necessary that wealthy
individuals in India donate more, and in larger numbers, to give back to
society.
