With Rs.7,904 crore given in the name of donations, Azim Premji, the founder and chairman of the tech giant Wipro topped the “EdelGive-Hurun India Philanthropy List”and became the “most generous Indian” of FY20.
The tycoon left Shiv Nadar, HCL Technologies chairman far behind as Premji contributed Rs.22 crore every day for the cause of philanthropy. Mr. Nadar had secured this spot last year with Rs.826 crore. This year, he donated Rs.795 crore.
Premji’s donation of this year was 1,645% more than his Rs.453 crore contribution of 2019.
The report released by Hurun India and EdelGive said, “With 90 philanthropists cumulatively donating ₹9,324 crore, education emerged as the most favoured cause. With 84 donors, healthcare registered a 111% increase in cumulative donation, followed by disaster relief and management, which has 41 donors, registering a cumulative donation of ₹354 crore or an increase of 240%.”
2020 also recorded a total of Rs.12,050 crore worth of donations, a drastic jump of 175% compared to last year with 112 donors.
Following Mr. Nadar was the richest man of India and the director of Reliance group of companies, Mukesh Ambani. He clung onto his previos third position with donation of Rs.458 crore. He had given Rs.402 crore in 2019.
The arrival of the pandemic led to the record-high donations this year as the country witnessed the wealthiest individuals donating for the welfare of the society that is drowning in the atrocities of the virus. This led to the registration of Tata Sons with a Rs.1,500 crore commitment, while Premji had the second spot with Rs.1,125 crore and Ambani the third with Rs.510 crore.
The top donors of the list has Kumar Mangalam Birla donating Rs.276 crore, Anil Agarwal, the founder and chairman of Vedanta giving Rs.215 crore, Ajay Piramal contributing Rs.196 crore, Gautam Adani serving Rs.88 crore, Rahul Bajaj funding Rs.74 crore and many such generous Indians.
Many companies also donated to the PM-CARES fund including Reliance committing Rs.500 crore, Aditya Birla Group giving Rs.400 crore and Tata Sons donating Rs.500 crore. However, the expenditure of the funds hasn’t been disclosed by the government yet.
Azim Premji has a separate Endowment Fund within Wipro and it holds 13.6% shares of the company. The APEF owns the right to take the funds it earns from the shares and donate it.
The report featuring Azim Premji and others witnessed a substantial rise of donors (giving more than 10 crore) with 78 registering this year compared to 2019’s 72.
The first and only professional managers to ever become a part of the list were Amit Chandra and Archana Chandra of ATE Chandra foundation with a donation amount of Rs.27 crore.
Also being a part of the list were three co-founders of Infosys, including Nandan Nilekani (Rs 159 crore), S Gopalkrishnan (Rs 50 crore) and S D Shibulal (Rs 32 crore).
Binny Bansal, in the report, is the only donor who is below the age of 40.
The list has three of Infosys’ co-founders with The list of 109 individuals who have donated over Rs 5 crore has seven women, led by Rohini Nilekani’s Rs 47 crore.
109 people have donated more than Rs.5 crore and this has the names of 7 women. Rohini Nilekani, with her donation of Rs.47 crore topped the list of the ‘most generous indian’ in the women sector. Second and third were Anu Aga and the family of Thermax respectively.
