NEW DELHI: In what may make Asia's richest billionaire Gautam Adani a top philanthropist, the Adani Family has committed a donation of Rs 60,000 crore to a range of social causes on the occasion of the centenary birth anniversary of Gautam Adani’s father Shri Shantilal Adani, and Gautam Adani’s own 60th birthday.
Without disclosing the timeline as to when this amount will be spent, the donation amount, according to Adani Group, will be spent on charitable activities related to healthcare, education, and skill development.
The Rs 60,000 crore amount is also much more than what the Group generally spends on its CSR activities. According to information available on its website, the Adani Group invests about 2% of its total profit in various CSR initiatives through Adani Foundation.
In FY22, the Group's seven listed entity had reported a combined profit of nearly Rs 13,000 crore on a revenue of nearly Rs 1.85 lakh crore. What's also mind-boggling is that this commitment comes even as the combined gross debt of the Group companies reached a new high of Rs 2.22 lakh crore at the end of March this year, up 42 per cent from Rs 1.57 lakh crore a year ago, according to data from Capitaline.
At present, Gautam Adani's fortune is estimated at $91.7 billion, according to Bloomberg's billionaire Index. In year 2021 and 2022 so far, Adani has added more billions to his wealth than any other billionaire in the world.
According to a senior image consultant, the publicity earned by committing a donation of this size is a major brand building exercise for the Adanis. "The Group is involved in dirty energy business such as coal mining and thermal power and is often criticized by environmentalists all over the world for damaging the green ecosystem," the consultant said on the condition of anonymity.
Gautam Adani, Chairman, Adani Group, said “This contribution from the Adani Family intends to draw upon
some of the brightest minds that have a passion to make a difference in the Adani Foundation’s journey to do more towards fulfilling our ‘Growth with Goodness’ philosophy.”
On this occasion, Azim Premji, Chairman of Azim Premji Foundation and founder-chairman of Wipro Limited and one of the greatest philanthropists of our times, said, “Gautam Adani and his family’s commitment towards philanthropy should set an example that we can all try to live Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of Trusteeship of Wealth at the peak of our business success and need not wait for our
sunset years”.