Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani, Asia’s richest person, and his family have pledged to donate Rs 60,000 crore to a slew of social causes, to mark his 60th birthday. This corpus will be administered by the Adani Foundation.
The donation will be managed by the Adani Foundation for bolstering health care, education and skill development, Adani told Bloomberg in an interview Thursday.
“This is one the largest transfers made to a foundation in the Indian corporate history,” he said, adding that this commitment also honours the birth centenary year of his father, Shantilal Adani.
“To utilise the potential of India’s demographic advantage, there is an ever growing need to focus on the areas of healthcare, education, and skill development. The shortfalls in each of these areas are roadblocks for an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat.’ The Adani Foundation has gained rich experience in working with communities focused on integrated development efforts across all these areas. Addressing these challenges can significantly enhance the competence and competitiveness of our future workforce,” said Adani Group in a statement.
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“In addition to being the 100th birth anniversary of my inspiring father, this year also happens to be the year of my 60th birthday and therefore the family decided to contribute Rs. 60,000 crores towards charitable activities related to healthcare, education, and skill development, especially in the rural regions of our nation”. said Gautam Adani.
The Indian tycoon, a first-generation entrepreneur who turns 60 on Friday, joins the ranks of global billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and Warren Buffett who have committed large parts of their wealth for philanthropy. With a net worth of almost $92 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Adani has added a little more $15 billion to his wealth this year — the biggest gainer globally, the index shows.
“We will invite three expert committees in coming months to formalise strategy and decide allocation of funds in these three areas,” he said. The committees will have members from the Adani family in supporting roles, he added.
The Adani group, which started off with a small agri-trading firm in 1988, has now spawned into a conglomerate that spans coal trading, mining, logistics, power generation and distribution and more recently, green energy, airports, data centers and cement.
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“At a very fundamental level, programs related to all these three areas should be seen holistically and they collectively form the drivers to build an equitable and future-ready India. Our experience in large project planning and execution and the learnings from the work done by the Adani Foundation will help us uniquely accelerate these programs,” added Adani.
On this occasion, Azim Premji, Chairman of Azim Premji Foundation and Founder Chairman of Wipro Limited and widely recognised as one of the greatest philanthropists of our times said, “Gautam Adani and his family’s commitment towards philanthropy should set an example that we can all try to live Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of Trusteeship of Wealth at the peak of our business success and need not wait for our sunset years”. He further added “the challenges and possibilities of our country demand that we work together as one, cutting across all divides of wealth, region, religion, caste, and more”.
Gautam Adani wants to make his social image. While quoting Premji, Gautam Adani has given a clear indication that people should make him equal to Premji. We believe Gautam Adani is doing this to avoid criticism. Social cause and social issue are two different things. Capitalism and socialism are two different things. The question is, why do industrialists with extreme capitalist mindsets want to be seen as socialists. It is a matter to note that the people of India feel their happiness only in destroying capitalism.
