Naik made all his donations “exclusively in his personal capacity”, unlike the top nine who gave through family and other endowment funds, according to Hurun.
India’s richest are not only growing richer, but also becoming more generous. Or so reveals the ninth edition of the EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List. Overall donations more than doubled to Rs 5,666 crore in FY22 from Rs 2,318 crore in FY18. The 2022 list takes into account donations (by value of cash or cash-equivalents) made by the richest Indians between April 1, 2021, and March 31, 2022.
HCL Founder Shiv Nadar, 77, has emerged as the most generous Indian in this period, with annual donations of Rs 1,161 crore—more than Rs 3 crore a day on average in FY22. Trailing him in the second position is Wipro’s Azim Premji, whose annual donations stood at Rs 484 crore. Premji is also the only living Indian to feature in the EdelGive Hurun Philanthropists of the Century list.
Other prominent givers in the top 10 include RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani (Rs 411 crore); Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla (Rs 242 crore); Mindtree’s Co-founders Susmita and Subroto Bagchi (Rs 213 crore) and Radha and N.S. Parthasarathy (Rs 213 crore); Adani Group’s Gautam Adani (Rs 190 crore); Vedanta Chairman Anil Agarwal (Rs 165 crore), Infosys Co-founder Nandan Nilekani (Rs 159 crore), and L&T Executive Chairman A.M. Naik (Rs 142 crore).
Naik made all his donations “exclusively in his personal capacity”, unlike the top nine who gave through family and other endowment funds, according to Hurun. The 80-year-old is also the first professional manager to enter the top 10 of the EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List.
Besides legacy companies, new-age start-up entrepreneurs have also made their presence felt in the list, with Zerodha’s Nithin and Nikhil Kamath breaking into the top 10 of individual givers. The Kamath brothers made annual donations of Rs 100 crore, up 308 per cent from a year ago. Flipkart Co-founder Binny Bansal and Unilazer Ventures’ Ronnie and Zarina Screwvala also feature in the list.
Commenting on the growing pool of givers, Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher of Hurun India, says: “Over the last five years, the number of donors who have given more than Rs 100 crore has grown from two to 15; and [those who have given] over Rs 50 crore has grown from five to 20. Considering the wealth creation potential of India and assuming that the billionaires keep up with philanthropy, I expect these numbers to at least double over the next five years.”
Warren Buffett once said, “If you’re in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.” India’s richest are certainly paying heed.
(Source: BusinessToday)
