Abhishek Lodha has committed to transfer a significant part of the shareholding by him and his family in the listed company Macrotech Developers Ltd. (Lodha / MDL), to Lodha Philanthropy Foundation (LPF) this Diwali.
The donation by the Lodha Group promoter will allow LPF to have an initial corpus of Rs 20,000 crores (USD 2.5 billion). The company said that LPF is a non-profit organization that uses all its income and assets solely for national and social upliftment causes.
Abhishek Lodha, MD & CEO of Lodha Group said that LPF will now own 1/5th of one of India’s largest real estate companies, Macrotech Developers.
Commenting on the family’s decision to allocate a significant portion of their wealth to national and social causes, Abhishek Lodha, MD and CEO of Lodha Group, said “About 100 years ago, the Tata family gave a major part of their shareholding in their enterprise to the Tata Trusts. The huge impact of this gift on India and the good work by the Tata Trusts has been a major inspiration for me.”
“We have been scaling up the activities of the Foundation in the past few years and believe that we now have the right programs, leadership, and team, to enable the Foundation to make a meaningful difference to the Hon’ble Prime Minister vision of India becoming a developed nation by 2047. The Lodha Philanthropy Foundation represents the dreams of all 1.5 billion Indians and from today onwards, all of India will be a partner in, and benefit from, the growth and success of Lodha Group and Macrotech Developers. In the spirit of jan bhaagidari, this is our humble contribution to nation building,” he added.
Lodha Philanthropy Foundation (LPF)
LPF is the philanthropic arm of the Lodha Group. The organisation has 4 key focus areas – women, children, environment, and Indian culture.
LPF’s current initiatives include Lodha Unnati which is focused on increasing female participation in India’s workforce driven by the belief that women’s economic empowerment is both economically and socially critical. The program works with a large number of corporates to make conditions conducive for female employees. Simultaneously, it works with female workers to upskill them and give them the tools to do justice to both work and family commitments.
Institute of Applied Mathematics (IAM) is another initiative by LPF that is modelled after the Fields Institute in Toronto (Canada). IAM, which focuses on encouraging top mathematical minds of Indian and non-Indian origin to do high-quality research.
Lodha Genius Programme by LPF focuses on helping the brightest children from across India, irrespective of income background, achieve their fullest potential by fulfilling their key requirements – including financial, mentoring, infrastructure, as well as advanced learning. The program identifies and supports children from middle school upto their 1st job and while doing so, seeks to imbibe a spirit of giving back to nation and society in these bright minds. The program works with eminent academics including Nobel Laureates, as well as leading institutions such as Ashoka University.
LPF’s Justice Gumanmal Lodha Scholars Program is inspired by the legacy of Late Chief Justice Guman Mal Lodha who rose to prominence in Judiciary and Politics from extremely humble beginnings. The Scholars Program supports meritorious Indian students study at the top global institutions for their undergraduate and post-graduate programs. While not being a requirement, it encourages these bright minds to come back to India after completing their education and support India’s development. The program offers scholarships of upto US$100,000 per year to a qualifying scholar covering tuition as well as incidental expenses. The program has been initiated at Harvard University, and further plans to partner with 10 top global institutions over the next few years.
As part of its sustainable initiative, the foundation has tied up with Rocky Mountain Institute, USA (RMI) to achieve net zero in the real estate and infrastructure sectors. Lodha seeks to transition the built environment (buildings and infrastructure) in India to become net zero on carbon (and other GHG) emissions at the earliest. As a result, of this partnership, Lodha has already achieved net zero emissions on Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions and is actively working on a significant reduction in Scope 3 emissions. In addition, Lodha now carries out ~99% of its construction activities using renewable power and recycles ~99% of waste water at its developments. Lodha is now rated amongst the top 10 real estate developers globally for its sustainability practices.
Macrotech Developers, also known as t Lodha Developers, has delivered around 100 million square feet of real estate and is developing more than 110 million square feet under its ongoing and planned portfolio.
