HCL founder Shiv Nadar has topped the list of philanthropists in India with a donation of ₹630 crore in 2016. He was followed by Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan and his wife, Sudha Gopalakrishnan, and Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani with a contribution of ₹313 crore and ₹303 crore, according to the Hurun India Philanthropy List 2016 released on Wednesday.
Interestingly, the latest India philanthropy list has only 27 individuals compared to 36 last year. Individuals who have donated a minimum of ₹10 crore were considered in the Hurun’s list.
The number of men philanthropists has gone down to 25 from 86, while that of women is down to two from 14.
The overall contribution by top philanthropists fell sharply to ₹2,334 crore from ₹30,767 crore as families of Azim Premji (Wipro) and Narayana Murthy (Infosys) transferred some of their holdings to charitable institutions last year.
Their contribution this year has fallen to ₹34 crore and ₹14 crore from ₹ 27,514 crore and ₹ 1,322 crore recorded last year.
Anas Rahman Junaid, Managing Director and Chief Researcher, Hurun Report India, said as the country was young, it will take a few more years before there are consistent philanthropic donations from the entrepreneurs. “We would have missed some of the major donors.
“However, based on the information received, 2016 has been a dull year for Indian philanthropy. If we were to consider the international CSR and philanthropic donations, the list would be much longer,” he added.
Who’s who Kumar Mangalam Birla (49) of Aditya Birla Group is the youngest philanthropist with donation of ₹21 crore and the eldest was Pallonji Mistry (87) of Shapoorji Pallonji Group, who contributed ₹68 crore.
With nine dropouts from the list, Indian philanthropy stood at ₹2,334 crore, with an average donation per philanthropist being ₹86 crore. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon and Savitri Jindal of Jindal Group were the only women philanthropists in the list, with donations of ₹45 crore and ₹53 crore respectively. Abu Dhabi-based MA Yusuf Ali of EMKE Group and Desh Bandhu Gupta of Lupin are the two new entrants in the list with contributions of ₹19 crore and ₹10 crore, respectively.
Accounting for 35 per cent of the donations, education remains the most favoured philanthropic cause, followed by healthcare and social development.