Philanthropy just got a massive boost. Wipro chairman has announced that earnings from 34 per cent of his shareholding from the software giant — or Rs 52,750 crore ($7.5 billion) — would be parked with the Azim Premji Foundation that works for social uplift. Adding this to his earlier commitment, Premji’s contribution to his foundation has touched Rs 1.45 lakh crore ($21 billion), placing him among the world’s biggest philanthropists along with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and George Soros.
The Azim Premji Foundation has meanwhile announced that with the increased fund flow, plans are afoot to open a university campus in three years. The foundation also provides grants to 150 NGOs working on projects involving differently-abled people, tackling drug abuse and violence against women.
BIG DONATIONS DECLINE
But Premji does not represent the real face of Indian philanthropy, which has proved to be quite tight-fisted over the years. Management consultant firm Bain & Company, which brings out an annual ‘Indian Philanthropic Report’, painted a fairly rosy picture in its 2019 edition, stating that social sector funds had continued to grow 11 per cent annually. Government social sector funding, it says, went up 10 per cent to Rs 2.1 lakh crore in FY2018 and private funding rose 15 per cent to Rs 70,000 crore in the same period.
However, the same report reveals that take away Azim Premji’s contribution from the Ultra High Net Worth Indians (UNHIs who put in more than Rs 10 crore), and the segment has seen a 4 per cent decrease!
“This is particularly problematic, given that UHNI households have grown at a rate of 12 per cent over the past five years and are expected to double in both volume and wealth from 1,60,600 households with INR 1,53,000 crore combined net worth in 2017 to 3,30,400 households with INR 3,52,000 crore combined net worth in 2022,” says the report. So, the more the number of rich and the size of their riches, the less they gave back to society!
The Union government’s witch hunt against NGOs did not help either. Using its powers under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010, it has cancelled the licenses of more than 13,000 NGOs, including Greenpeace and Amnesty International. This has resulted in foreign contributions declining by about 40 per cent, the report says.
Philanthropy, which is providing for the welfare of the less privileged, is an ancient Hindu culture and predates the philanthropy of the American billionaires. ‘Daan’ is not a condescending concept as often made out; it epitomises the feeling of giving and caring for others. As millions queue up to meet their God in temples and mosques, ‘Daan’ — money and food for the poor — has become part of worship. A similar extension is the free ‘Langar’ or the soup kitchen run from Sikh Gurdwaras.
INCREASING WEALTH
Yet, the spirit of giving among the rich has not kept pace with the increase and concentration of wealth. According to the ‘2018 Giving USA’ report, Americans gave a total of $410 billion to charity last year. The Bain report says the entire Indian private sector funding for philanthropy was Rs 70,000 crore or a little less than $10 billion!
Meanwhile, 106 Indian billionaires made it to the Forbes 2019 list, making India the country with the third highest number of ultra-rich individuals, behind China and the US. In size, according to Oxfam’s 2018 annual study, Indian billionaires’ wealth increased by Rs 4.89 lakh crore (approximately $70 billion), a sum sufficient to finance 85 per cent of the all states’ budget on health and education.
As IndiaSpend.com points out, though Mukesh Ambani topped Barclay’s Hurun India Philanthropy List in 2018 by donating Rs 437 crore ($624,000) for education, healthcare and rural development, it was just 0.1 per cent of his wealth, which grew by $10 billion in 2019. In comparison, Bill Gates, who is worth around $94 billion today, has given away $50 billion so far to non-profits and charities, and US’
Berkshire Hathway chief Willian Buffett, worth $84 billion, has donated $46 billion.
Interestingly, worldwide the biggest philanthropists are not necessarily businessmen and industrialists. They are successful professionals — people like US TV host Oprah Winfrey and British author J K Rowling. In India too, the informal channels of philanthropy — through temple trusts and mass ‘daan’ programmes, is robust and growing. Even a small initiative called ‘Daan Utsav’, a movement that celebrates ‘giving’ during Gandhi Jayanthi Week, has gained considerable traction over the years.
Azim Premji has just raised the bar; and clearly the rich in India need to do better!