Azim Premji tops EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy list 2020

Even though they are successful in the businesses they run, striving hard for the profit their companies earn and fighting bitter boardroom battles at times, India Inc has always helped society and made others benefit from their success.

Azim Premji, the 75-year-old former chairman of Wipro has been the most generous philanthropist in India for 2020 with a donation of Rs 7,904 crore, as per EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2020 unveiled Tuesday.

Shiv Nadar, founder chairman of HCL Technologies was ranked second, followed Mukesh Ambani, chairman, Reliance Industries, Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of Aditya Birla Group, and Anil Agarwal, chairman, Vedanta Group. Among the lot, Birla debuted at the top 5 slot in this list and is the youngest among the top 10.

7 women found a place in the list with Rohini Nilekani (donating Rs 47 crore) being India’s most generous woman; followed by Anu Aga & family of Thermax (Rs 36 crore), and Biocon's Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (Rs 34 crore).

All for a cause

The preferred cause of India's top philanthropists over the past seven years has been education and 2020 was no different as most of the donations were made for this purpose. As per the findings, 90 philanthropists cumulatively donated Rs 9,324 crore for the cause.

With 84 donors, healthcare registered a 111 per cent increase in cumulative donation over 2019 at Rs 667 crore, followed by disaster relief & management, which had 41 donors, registering a cumulative donation of Rs 354 crore – an increase of 240 per cent over 2019.

“Education, we feel, is the best way to provide equality and gives a chance to people to earn more, live a better quality of life and have access to better healthcare. That apart, issues related to children are closer to our heart and education, in essence, delivers on that front,” said Vidya Shah, chairperson and chief executive of EdelGive Foundation.

EdelGive Hurun India philanthropy list includes cash and cash equivalents pledged with legally binding commitments for the twelve months between April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020 and the latest available CSR data filed with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. For 2020, the list features individuals who have donated Rs 5 crore or more during the period under review. The cumulative CSR spend of BSE 200 companies, according to the report, has grown nearly 113 per cent - from Rs 5,561 crore in FY15 to Rs 11,881 crore in FY20.

New entrants

Twenty-eight philanthropists entered EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2020 for the first time. The top new additions included S D Shibulal of Infosys with a donation of Rs 32 crore, followed by Amit and Archana Chandra of A.T.E. Chandra Foundation (Rs 27 crore), and Ram Beriwala & Shyam Sunder Beriwala of Shyam Steels (Rs 19 crore).

The number of individuals who have donated over Rs 10 crore increased by 100 per cent over the last two years, from 37 to 78 this year, findings suggest.

“Binny Bansal is the first philanthropist under the age of 40 to enter the philanthropy list. 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,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher, Hurun India.