Shiv Nadar, the founder of HCL Technologies Ltd, has retained India’s most generous title for the third time in five years. He topped the Edelgive-Hurun India Philanthropy List 2024 with an annual donation of ₹2,153 crore ( ₹5.9 crore per day) in 2023-24.
He was followed on the list by Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries Ltd. Ambani and his family donated ₹407 crore through Reliance Foundation.
The others among the country’s top 10 philanthropists are the Bajaj family ( ₹352 crore), Kumar Mangalam Birla and family ( ₹334 crore), Gautam Adani and family ( ₹330 crore), Nandan Nilekani ( ₹307 crore), Krishna Chivukala, who donated ₹228 crore to his alma mater IIT Madras, Anil Agarwal and family ( ₹181 crore), Susmita and Subroto Bagchi ( ₹179 crore), and Rohini Nileknai ( ₹ ₹154 crore).
The 11 consecutive edition of the list saw 96 new entrants, bringing the total number of philanthropists in the country to 203, who donated ₹8,783 crore in 2023-24. The top 10 collectively contributed ₹4,625 crore.
At 38, Nikhil Kamath of financial services firm Zerodha was the youngest philanthropist in the fiscal.
Eighteen philanthropists made annual donations of over ₹100 crore, 30 of over ₹50 crore, and 61 donated over ₹20 crore.
“Many would argue that Indian wealth creators still have ground to cover. However, considering that India is a young country with just under two decades of substantial wealth creation, the philanthropic numbers are quite promising,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, founder and chief researcher, Hurun India, on Thursday.
The threshold to enter the country’s top 10 philanthropists list has almost doubled in the last five years, from ₹83 crore to ₹154 crore, the report showed.
“The top 10 list represents a balanced spectrum of Indian philanthropy: We see first-generation entrepreneurs like Shiv Nadar and Adani alongside established family businesses such as Ambani, Bajaj, and Birla,” said Junaid.
Education was the most favoured cause, with 123 philanthropists donating a cumulative ₹3,680 crore. It was followed by healthcare, which saw a cumulative donation of ₹626 crore.
India’s education and healthcare needs are very high, and “our education and healthcare systems have to cover more ground,” said Naghma Mulla, chief executive, Edelgive Foundation, explaining why the two sectors see the most donations.
“The second reason, why these sectors get a lot of philanthropy is because [its] easier to see the impact,” she added.
The pharma industry had the highest share of philanthropists on the list at 16%, followed by chemicals and petrochemicals at 9%.
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