From Wipro's Azim Premji to Bajaj family: List of India's top 10 philanthropists

From Wipro's Azim Premji to Bajaj family: List of India's top 10 philanthropists

Premji topped the list collated by Hurun Report India and Edelgive Foundation, followed by HCL Technologies’ Shiv Nadar.

FPJ Web DeskUpdated: Friday, November 13, 2020, 10:26 AM IST
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Azim Premji | File Photo-AFP

IT major Wipro’s Azim Premji is the most generous Indian billionaire who donated Rs 22 crore a day or Rs 7,904 crore in a year in FY20 to top the list of philanthropists in the country.

Premji topped the list collated by Hurun Report India and Edelgive Foundation, followed by HCL Technologies’ Shiv Nadar. Nadar’s donations stood at Rs 795 crore for FY20 as against Rs 826 crore in the year-ago period. Premji had donated Rs 426 crore in the previous fiscal.

Nadar was the top of the list of India's most generous billionaires last year.

Here is the list of top 10 philanthropists in India

1. Azim Premji (Rs 7,904 crore)

2. Shiv Nadar and family (Rs 795 crore)

3. Mukesh Ambani and family (Rs 458 crore)

4. Kumar Mangalam Birla and family (Rs 276 crore)

5. Anil Agarwal and family (Rs 215 crore)

6. Ajay Piramal and family (Rs 196 crore)

7. Nandan Nilkeni (Rs 159 crore)

8. Hinduja Brothers (Rs 133 crore)

9. Gautam Adani and family (Rs 88 crore)

10. Rahul Bajaj and family (Rs 74 crore)

According to the report, total donations in the list increase by 175% to Rs 12,050 crore in 2020. Number of individuals who have donated more than Rs 10 crore also increased from 37 to 78 this year. With a donation of Rs 27 crore, Amit Chandra, 52, and Archana Chandra, 49, of ATE Chandra Foundation are the first and only professional managers to ever enter the Edelgive Hurun India Philanthropy List.

Kumara Mangalam Birla and Anil Agarwal moved into the top 5 for the first time while Flipkart’s co-founder Binny Bansal, 37, is the youngest in the list with a commitment of Rs 5.3 crore. The average age of the donors on the list was 66 years, it said.

With 36 individuals, Mumbai is home to most of the philanthropists in Edelgive Hurun India philanthropy list 2020, followed by New Delhi (20) and Bengaluru (10).

Education the most favored cause with 90 philanthropists cumulatively donating Rs 9,324 crore. With 84 donors, healthcare registered a 111% increase in cumulative donation, followed by disaster relief & management, which had 41 donors.

With a donation of Rs 47 crore, Rohini Nilekani, 61, was the most generous woman philanthropist in the list.

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.

A bulk of the corporate commitments seemed to be given to the PM-CARES Fund, with Reliance Industries committing Rs 500 crore, and Aditya Birla Group donating Rs 400 crore, the report said. It can be noted that Tatas’ commitment also includes a Rs 500 crore donation to the newly created fund.

Premji’s generosity pulled the total donations up by 175% to Rs 12,050 crore in FY20, the list said.

Azim Premji Endowment Fund owns 13.6% of the promoter’s shareholding in Wipro and has the right to receive all money earned from promoter shares, the report said.

The number of individuals who have donated more than Rs 10 crore increased marginally to 78 from the year-ago period’s 72, the report said.

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.

The list has three of Infosys’ co-founders with Nandan Nilekani (Rs 159 crore), S Gopalkrishnan (Rs 50 crore) and S D Shibulal (Rs 32 crore).

The list of 109 individuals who have donated over Rs 5 crore has seven women, led by Rohini Nilekani’s Rs 47 crore.

(With PTI inputs)

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