Azim Premji Is The Most Generous Indian For 3rd Time In Row; Only 36 Indians Donated More Than Rs 10 Cr In 2015

Indian business tycoon and investor Azim Premji has once again proved that he is the biggest philanthropist in India as of now. For the third time in row, he has been declared as the ‘most generous Indian’ by Hurun India Philanthropy List.

In 2013, Azim had donated 25% of his personal wealth to charity; and had promised that he will give the rest 25% in the next 5 years. He was worth $16.5 billion as of November, 2015.

Among top 10 philanthropists in India, Azim is the #1 ranked person as he donated Rs 27,514 crore for charity. In fact, 80% of the donations which was reported in India by Hurun came from Azim Premji himself.

Some other notable names include: Nandan and Rohini Nilekani (donations of Rs 2404 crore); Narayan Murthy (donated Rs 1322 crore); K Dinesh (donated Rs 1238 crore); Shiv Nadar (donated Rs 535 crore)

Overall, top 3 philanthropist in India donated Rs 16,491 crore, which is 53% more than 2015.

The sad part of this interesting report is the fact that only 36 Indians donated more than Rs 10 crore for charity purposes in 2015, which is indicating that rich Indians are now less inclined to help the poor. In 2014, 50 Indians donated more than Rs 10 crore to charity.

Among these 36 Indians, 12 are new entrants.

Sunny Varkey, the education billionaire from Kerala, is the only the second Indian who has pledged to donate 50% of his wealth for charity; thereby joining Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Azim Premji among others in this noble gesture. Azim Premji was the only Indian till now under ‘Giving Pledge’ mission.

Some other interesting highlights from this report:

• 50% of all charity went to Education sector, followed by 25% in social welfare; 17% in healthcare and 6% in Urban Governance.
• Mumbai is the philanthropists’ capital of India as 10 individuals from this city donated more than Rs 10 crore. However, in 2014, there were 14 mega- philanthropists from Mumbai. At #2 is Bangalore with 9 philanthropists; New Delhi is at #3 with 4 philanthropists (who donated more than Rs 10 crore)
• Infosys created 6 of these 36 mega- philanthropists in India
• Tech sector has created the most number of mega- philanthropists in India
• Rohan Murthy, 32, is the youngest philanthropist in India (donated Rs 35 crore) while Pallonji Mistry, 86, is the oldest philanthropist (donated Rs 95 crore)
• Average donation of mega- philanthropists in India is Rs 900 crore, which has increased from Rs 300 crore last year (though this was mainly due to Azim Premji’s massive donations)
• Average age of philanthropists in India is 63 years

Here is our last year’s post on Hurun India Philanthropy List .