New Delhi : Telecom czar Sunil Mittal on Thursday said the Bharti family has pledged 10 per cent of their wealth, totalling Rs 7,000 crore to support activities of the Group’s philanthropic arm, the Bharti Foundation.
The amount committed includes three per cent of the family’s stake in telecom major Bharti Airtel, Sunil Mittal, founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, said at a conference. “We are not in this for business,” said Mittal, who was flanked by his brothers Rakesh and Rajan.
The Bharti family will also set up a university – the Satya Bharti University – to offer free education to underprivileged youth from economically weaker sections of the society. The new-age university will focus on science and technology, especially on areas like artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), robotics, in addition to offering degrees in electrical and electronics engineering andmanagement. The university, which is expected to come up in north India, will commence its first academic session in 2021. Mittal said he expected the ground breaking ceremony to take place by early next year.
Most of the wealth pledged will be infused into the new university project, Mittal said. Talks are on to finalise a 100-acre land parcel for the university and “active discussions” are on with various states including Punjab and Haryana to zero-in on a location. Over a period of time the university will cater to 10,000 students, he added. Courses will be free for meritorious students who belong to economically weaker sections of the society.
“Given our attachment to technology, we would like it to be very significantly focussed on technology on the lines of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford, Berkeley..,” Mittal said. Going forward, the university will seek partnerships and industry linkages with several companies like social network Facebook, tech majors Microsoft and Google, iPhone-maker Apple, among others.
Mittal’s philanthropic move comes just days after Infosys co-founder and tech titan Nandan Nilekani and his wife Rohini Nilekani joined ‘The Giving Pledge’, committing half their wealth to philanthropy.
The Giving Pledge is a movement spearheaded by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, his wife Melinda Gates and legendary investor Warren Buffett that encourages the world’s richest people to dedicate a majority of their wealth to philanthrophy. It kicked-off in 2010.
