India’s top philanthropists: All you need to know

NEW DELHI: Founder-chairman of IT major Wipro Ltd Azim Premji has emerged as the most generous Indian in FY20 with donations worth Rs 22 crore a day or Rs 7,904 crore a year.
According to the seventh edition of EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2020, Premji surpassed last year's winner Shiv Naddar, who stood second with a contribution of Rs 795 crore. The HCL technologies chief had donated Rs 826 crore in the previous fiscal.
The report highlights India's top philanthropists in an attempt to capture the growing importance of individual givers in its landscape towards nation-building. Donations for this year have been measured by the value of their cash or cash equivalents from April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020.
Asia's richest man and chairman of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani retained the third spot among the list of givers by donating Rs 458 crore as against Rs 402 crore a year ago, it said. Aditya Birla Group chairman KM Birla and Vedanta Group chief Anil Agarwal were the other philanthropists in the top

Philanthropic activities by corporates
Corporates have always been actively engaged in making generous contributions towards nation-building. In addition to the mandatory 2 per cent spending towards corporate social responsibility activities (CSR), companies often spend additional amounts towards social causes.
Premji has committed 67% of economic interest in Wipro towards philanthropic activities. In 2020, the promoter holdings in Wipro earned a dividend of Rs 422 crore and the 2019 share buyback program fetched another Rs 7,347 crore – all of these would be donated towards philanthropy based on his endowment pledge.
In addition, Azim Premji Endowment Fund owns 13.6 per cent of the promoter’s shareholding in Wipro and has the right to receive all money earned from promoter shares.
“Azim Premji is a role model for Indian philanthropy and is continuing to inspire other entrepreneurs into giving”, said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and chief researcher, Hurun India.
Further, Infosys chief Nandan Nilekani and wife Rohini Nilekani individually donated Rs 159 crore and Rs 47 crore respectively. In FY 20, they donated more than Rs 100 crore towards Societal Platform, aimed at creating a shared space to solve problems, at scale, speed, and sustainably.
HCL Technologies chief Shiv Nadar who runs the Shiv Nadar Foundation that supports rural education and provides scholarships for underprivileged students to study abroad, donated Rs 689 crore through Shiv Nadar Foundation in FY20. While, Anu Aga & family of Thermax have committed 30 per cent of their dividend income towards philanthropic causes.
Bajaj family also has a long tradition of generous philanthropy over 100 years. The family foundation -- Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation -- works to bring about change in areas of healthcare and education, rural & urban development and to promote sports, Indian heritage and arts.
In addition, 21 individuals in EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2020 donated Rs 5 crore or more in their personal capacity.

Favoured philanthropic sectors
Education emerged to be the highest beneficiary sector with 90 philanthropists -- led by Premji -- donating Rs 9,324 crore, the report said. Healthcare came second with 84 donors and was followed by disaster relief and rehabilitation with 41 donors.
Healthcare registered a cumulative increase of 111 per cent with 84 donors, followed by disaster relief and management registering a cumulative donation of Rs 354 crore, that is, an increase of 240 per cent.

Most generous women philanthropists
Seven women featured in the Philanthropist List 2020. Rohini Nileka of Infosys emerged to be the most generous woman with a donation of Rs 47 crore during the year, followed by Anu Aga & family (Rs 36 crore) and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw of Biocon (Rs 34 crore).

India Inc's contribution towards Covid fight
The raging pandemic had the corporate honchos repurposing their donations to fight the Covid infections, and the top giver on this turned out to be Tata Sons with a Rs 1,500 crore commitment, followed by Premji at Rs 1,125 crore and Ambani's Rs 510 crore. It can be noted that Tatas' commitment also includes a Rs 500 crore donation to the PM CARES fund.
On April 1, 2020, Azim Premji Foundation (Rs 1,000 crore), Wipro (Rs 100 crore), and Wipro Enterprises (Rs 25 crore) committed Rs 1,125 crore towards tackling the pandemic. These are in addition to the annual CSR activities of Wipro, and the usual philanthropic spending of the Azim Premji Foundation.
While Reliance Industries contributed Rs 500 crore to the fund and Rs 5 crore each to the chief minister’s relief fund of Maharashtra and chief minister’s relief fund of Gujarat to support their fights against the Covid-19, Aditya Birla Group donated Rs 400 crore to the fund and Rs 50 crore to FICCI-Aditya Birla CSR Centre for Excellence. It also allocated Rs 50 crore for supplying N95 Masks, PPE’s and ventilators.

New entrants
With a donation of Rs 27 crore, Amit Chandra and Archana Chandra of ATE Chandra foundation are the first and only professional managers to ever enter the list.
SD Shibulal of Infosys with a donation of Rs 32 crore and Shri Ram Beriwala and Shyam Sunder Beriwala of Shyam Steels with contribution of Rs 19 crore were the other top additions in the list.
In all, 28 philanthropists made it to the list for the first time.
Average age
The average age of the donors on the list was 66 years.
E-commerce firm Flipkart's co-founder Binny Bansal was the youngest donor at 37 with a commitment of Rs 5.3 crore. He is the first philanthropist under the age of 40 years to feature in the list, the report noted.
"This is possibly one of the best news from the EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2020. I hope this will inspire more young wealth creators to not only donate but also to speak more about their donations,” Junaid said.
Donations at record high
Indian philanthropy stats recorded fresh highs this year with 100 per cent rise in the number of individuals who have donated more than Rs 10 crore over the last two years.
Since the inception of the list in 2013, there has been a three-fold increase in the number of entrants. From just 36 donors in 2016, the list comprises 112 donors at present.