Shares for social good: How India's wealth boom can drive philanthropy

Over the last decade, India has experienced one of the fastest surges in wealth creation globally. The market capitalisation of Indian listed companies has jumped more than six-fold — from about ₹70 trillion in 2014 to over ₹440 trillion in 2025 — propelled by entrepreneurship, innovation, and global investor confidence. India today is the fourth-largest equity market globally, behind only the United States, China, and Japan.

 

The M3M Hurun India Rich List 2025 identifies 1,319 individuals with net worths above ₹1,000 crore (ultra-high net worth individuals, or UHNIs) — up from 229 a decade ago. Even this figure is likely understated; leading wealth management firms estimate that the actual number of UHNIs is at least seven to 10 times higher, once unlisted holdings, real estate, and private assets are included. More important is the pace: Over the past decade, India’s wealth has grown exponentially, creating hundreds of first-generation entrepreneurs, professional founders, and business families who now hold valuable equity positions.

 

The rise of family offices and diversified capital

 

As valuations soared, many promoters and founders partially or fully cashed out, recycling capital into newer asset classes. This has been accompanied by the rapid rise of family offices — private investment vehicles that manage the financial affairs of wealthy families. According to a recent EY-Julius Baer report, family offices in India have grown from around 45 in 2018 to nearly 300 today, underscoring a transformative shift in how ultra-high net worth families are managing their wealth.

 

These dynamic investment vehicles have transformed the landscape of private capital. They allocate to private equity and venture capital, make angel investments, and diversify globally. In doing so, they have multiplied wealth and created a more sophisticated ecosystem of stewardship, one that increasingly considers not just financial returns but also structured governance and succession planning.

 

A new way of giving: Equity for impact

 

Alongside this diversification, a quiet but significant trend is emerging: Some promoters are beginning to leverage their shareholdings for social good, moving beyond cash donations to structural, equity-based philanthropy.

 

nAbhishek Lodha of Macrotech Developers (Lodha Group) has transferred close to 20 per cent of his family’s shareholding — valued at over ₹21,000 crore — to the Lodha Philanthropy Foundation. The foundation recently set up Lodha Maths Genius Institute, a pure and applied maths research centre of excellence for mathematics in Mumbai and the Lodha Genius Programme, a fully funded, multi-year educational programme in partnership with Ashoka University.

 

nMotilal Oswal and Raamdeo Agrawal, leaders in India’s capital markets, have each pledged 5 per cent of their promoter holdings to philanthropy. Their professionally managed foundation supports education, livelihoods, and rural development, making substantial commitments to institutions of excellence in higher education like ISB Hyderabad and Plaksha University.

 

nThe Doshi family of Waaree Energies, one of India’s largest solar module manufacturers, recently announced plans to donate 1 per cent of their equity stake to a charitable vehicle focused on sustainability and skill development.

 

These examples represent a new philanthropic paradigm — where promoters convert enterprise success into perpetual capital for public good. This is a trickle today. It must gather momentum through deliberate and collective action by wealth creators.

 

What wealth creators can do

 

A promoter can transfer a portion of equity stake to a trust as an irrevocable gift in a tax-neutral manner. The dividends or capital gains earned therefrom can be applied to fund philanthropic interventions in area(s) that resonate(s) with the individual and their family — whether education, healthcare, skilling, livelihoods, women’s empowerment, rural development, sport, art and culture, etc.

Philanthropic capital is uniquely positioned to act as long-term, patient capital. It can fund institution building, support research and development, build evidence to inform public policy, help design and implement scalable, efficient models of public service delivery. Such catalytic giving multiplies impact far beyond what one-time or even recurring charity can achieve.

 

Why policy matters

 

While individual action can start immediately, a change in tax policy would make it easier to scale and institutionalise this model. At present, charitable organisations are prohibited from holding equity for more than 12 months within which period they must sell the shares and apply the proceeds for charitable purposes or reinvest in permissible modes of investment that are safe but low return. 

A prudent first step would be to permit them to hold shares in listed companies, where disclosure and compliance standards are high. Once the framework proves robust and transparent, it can gradually extend to private and unlisted firms. Such a phased approach would enable the ecosystem to mature while maintaining safeguards.

 

Since the Companies Act, 2013 made corporate social responsibility (CSR) mandatory, India’s corporate social investment has scaled dramatically. Annual CSR spending has tripled between FY15 and FY24, rising from about ₹10,000 crore to nearly ₹35,000 crore, with cumulative expenditure exceeding ₹2.2 trillion.

 

That same momentum can now be extended to personal and family philanthropy. Allowing promoters to dedicate a fraction of their equity holdings to philanthropy would embed giving directly into the structure of wealth creation.

 

A call to action

 

The idea of using equity for social good is not new to India. More than a century ago, Jamsetji Tata and his successors institutionalised this model through the Tata Trusts, which still own 66 per cent of Tata Sons, creating one of the world’s most enduring examples of philanthropic endowment through promoter shareholding. Azim Premji revived that tradition for the modern era, transferring a majority of his Wipro holdings, worth over ₹1.5 trillion, to the Azim Premji Foundation, now India’s largest philanthropic endowment.

 

The examples of Abhishek Lodha, Motilal Oswal, Raamdeo Agrawal, and Doshi family show that this legacy is being carried forward by a new generation of entrepreneurs across diverse sectors.

 

India’s business promoters and entrepreneurs stand at an inflection point. They can act now — create or strengthen the family foundation, gift a small percentage of equity, and use the income to fund ideas and institutions that will outlast them.

 

The next great wave of nation-building will come from entrepreneurs who turn prosperity into purpose. And tax policy tweaks can speed them on their way.

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Ashish Dhawan is Founder-CEO, The Convergence Foundation. Radhika Jain is Philanthropy Partner, Accelerate Indian Philanthropy.