Five entrepreneurs backed philanthropic organizations creating social impact in India

India is a country with a population of 1.2 billion people who come from different social backgrounds and cultures. World Bank has reported that 11.8 percent of the population in India falls below the international poverty line.

There are many individuals and groups who involve themselves in philanthropic activities that work towards the benefit and upliftment of people. These people are involved in directly working on-field, providing economic support, or creating philanthropic organizations that aim to benefit and affect the lives of the people.

The top five philanthropic organizations that are working towards social upliftment in India are:

• Gates Foundation is continuously working and expanding its scope of work in the healthcare and agricultural sectors in India. They’ve made significant investments in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, affecting about 300 million people. Their investments are issue specific. They have funded in support of the national polio eradication program, supported efforts to help farmers increase the productivity of their staple crops and livestock and work with community-based partners to expand access to digital financial services in poor communities, which have increased the penetration of mobile devices in rural India.
• Azim Premji Foundation works towards enabling elementary education in India. They work with nearly 3,50,000 government-run schools, with the majority of them established in rural India in about 8 states. Azim Premji has made an investment of $2 billion using 213 million shares of Wipro Ltd. The foundation plans to have about 50 District Institutes, 30 schools and over 4000 employees
• The HCL founder and chairman, Shiv Nadar leads the Shiv Nadar Foundation which has three initiatives in the education sector and one in arts: VidyaGyan Leadership Academy and Shiv Nadar School in K-12 level education segment; SSN Institutions and Shiv Nadar University in the Higher education segment; SIKSHA in the primary school segment; and The Kiran Nadar Museum Art, a philanthropic museum promoting modern and contemporary art.
• G M Rao of the GMR Group has set up a professionally run independent company, GMR Varalakshmi Foundation in 22 locations in India and Nepal. It serves four sectors that include education, livelihood, health care and community development. Under a scheme of GMRV Foundation, about 80% of the children have been scoring more than 80% marks in the exams. They are presently working with about 75 schools across various locations.
• Swades Foundation was set up by Ronnie Screwvala and Zarina Screwvala. They aim towards a 360-degree development with a focus on five verticals: Community Mobilisation, Water & Sanitation, Agriculture & Livelihood, Education and Health & Nutrition, in Rural India.The foundation is primarily supported and sponsored by Unilazer Ventures Pvt. Ltd. They plan to achieve their mission of transforming the lives of 1 million people in rural India in 5 years.