Azim Premji tops EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2020; Binny Bansal youngest to feature
Azim Premji's donations to charity grew a whopping 1,645 percent this year, while Binny Bansal debuted on the list of India's leading philanthropists. He's also the youngest to feature there.
Azim Premji is India's biggest philanthropist yet again.
The Wipro Founder-Chairman has topped the Hurun India Philanthropy List 2020, announced in partnership with the EdelGive Foundation.
The 75-year-old's donations stood at Rs 7,904 crore, growing a whopping 1,645 percent from a year ago. Education is the primary cause supported by Premji, and he has donated Rs 9,143 crore to it in the last three years, making him the most generous Indian by miles.
Azim Premji Foundation (Rs 1,000 crore), Wipro (Rs 100 crore), and Wipro Enterprises (Rs 25 crore) committed Rs 1,125 crore towards tackling the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. These are in addition to the annual CSR activities of Wipro, and the usual philanthropic spending of the Azim Premji Foundation, according to Hurun.
“Azim Premji is a role model for Indian philanthropy and continues to inspire other entrepreneurs into giving," said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher at Hurun India.
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani
Premji is succeeded by HCL Chairman Shiv Nadar and Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani on the Hurun list. While Nadar's donations fell by four percent to Rs 795 crore this year, Ambani's increased by 14 percent to Rs 458 crore.
On March 30, Reliance Industries announced a donation of Rs 500 crore to the PM CARES Fund and Rs 5 crore each to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund of Maharashtra and Chief Minister’s Relief Fund of Gujarat to support their fights against COVID-19.
Others in the top 10 are Kumar Mangalam Birla (Rs 276 crore), Anil Agarwal (Rs 215 crore), Ajay Piramal (Rs 196 crore), Nandan Nilekani (Rs 159 crore), Hinduja Brothers (Rs 133 crore), Gautam Adani (Rs 88 crore), and Rahul Bajaj (Rs 74 crore).
Incidentally, Rohini Nilekani, who along with husband Nandan Nilekani, had signed the Giving Pledge in 2017, topped the list of women philanthropists. Her donations towards the cause of environmental sustainability stood at Rs 47 crore.
Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal is the youngest on the Hurun India Philanthropy List 2020
Rohini was followed by Thermax's Anu Aga and Biocon's Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, who donated Rs 36 crore and Rs 34 crore respectively towards educational initiatives.
Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal is the youngest on the list and the only philanthropist under the age of 40. Binny debuted this year with donations worth Rs 5.3 crore towards the cause of education.
In fact, education was the most popular cause this year, with 90 philanthropists cumulatively donating Rs 9,324 crore towards it.
With 84 donors, healthcare registered a 111 percent rise in cumulative donation, followed by disaster relief management, which had 41 donors, Hurun India revealed.
“The preferred cause of India’s top philanthropists has been education, although poverty alleviation has grown dramatically to become the second most popular cause this year. I hope the Hurun Philanthropy List can help people understand the mindset of some of India’s most successful entrepreneurs and philanthropists as well as inspire future generations to give back," Hurun's Anas Rahman Junaid added.
Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta