Azim Premji, Nandan Nilekani among Top Philanthropists of 2021

With a donation of a steep Rs. 9,713 crore, Azim Premji & family – the founder chairman of Wipro – tops the EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2021. This is EdelGive and Hurun India’s 8th annual ranking of the most generous individuals of our nation.

EdelGive Foundation has partnered with Hurun India towards creating this report to understand philanthropic giving in the country from a data and evidence point of view. The report is not only significant in understanding data of giving but also throws light on the sectors and geographies that are at the receiving end of this giving. It follows on from the Hurun India Rich List, a ranking of 1,007 richest individuals in India, released in September 2021 for the tenth year.

Top philanthropists of 2021

In June 2021, The Azim Premji Foundation nearly doubled its allocation towards the pandemic from Rs. 1,125 crore to Rs. 2,125 crore to expand work on vaccination across ten states, with a commitment to increase this further if the need demands.

HCL Technologies founder-chairman Shiv Nadar & family retains the 2nd spot. As of 2021, Nadar has invested almost a billion US dollars through his foundation to impact over 30,000 students directly. In 2021 alone, the Shiv Nadar foundation donated Rs. 70 core towards COVID relief. With a donation of Rs. 557 crore, Mukesh Ambani & family of Reliance Industries, occupies the 3rd spot. RIL produced over 1000 MT of medical-grade liquid oxygen per day or 11% of India’s total production and supplied over 55,000 MT of medical-grade liquid oxygen across the country free of cost.

With a donation of Rs. 377 crore, Kumar Mangalam Birla & family ranks 4th on the list. The Aditya Birla Group donated Rs. 400 crore to the PM CARES Fund and Rs. 50 crore to FICCI-Aditya Birla CSR Centre for Excellence. Birla has also allocated Rs. 50 crore for supplying N95 Masks, PPE’s and ventilators in India. Infosys’s Nandan Nilekani ranks 5th. He donated Rs. 138 crore for Societal Thinking in FY 2021. Nandan and Rohini Nilekani signed the Giving Pledge in 2017 and committed to donating half of their wealth towards philanthropy.

Tech and pharma entrepreneurs were most generous

Said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher, Hurun India, “The cumulative donation in EdelGiveHurun India Philanthropy List has grown from just under Rs. 2,500 crore to more than Rs. 14,750 crore today. Entrepreneurs from Pharmaceutical and Software & Services sectors, which are the top wealth creators in Hurun India Rich List 2021, have interestingly secured the top position in terms of cumulative value of donations too. Some of the tech entrepreneurs, who I have interacted with, are in the process of finalising substantial ‘giving back’ plans to causes ranging from education to climate change. For instance, the Kamath brothers of Zerodha have plans to give back Rs. 750 crore over the next three years. I expect to see more such new wealth creators turned givers gaining a spot in the future editions of EdelGiveHurun India Philanthropy Lists.”

C-level executives have been playing a very impactful role in Indian philanthropy. Said Mr. Junaid, “This year’s list includes AM Naik who donated Rs. 112 crore and Amit Chandra and Archana Chandra who have donated Rs. 19 crore. This is impressive considering the fact that they are amongst the top 100 philanthropists in the country – ahead of more than 900 individuals who featured on the Hurun India Rich List.”

Culture of giving back

“Indian wealth creators have the potency to enable philanthropic structures, systems and processes for overall nation building. It is important to speak about these inspiring philanthropic stories and incite motivational action auguring India’s pace of ‘giving back’ to the society. We need to create forums to celebrate such efforts so that it percolates down to every level of the community and encourages us to embrace the spirit of altruism and humane-living,” concluded Anas Rahman Junaid.

Most preferred Philanthropic Cause – 2021

The preferred cause of India’s top philanthropists has been Education, although on the back of Covid-19, Disaster Relief has grown dramatically to become the second most popular cause this year. With 65% of donations, Education remains the most favoured philanthropic cause, followed by Disaster Relief & Management (13%) and Health Care (6%).

CSR spent beyond the prescribed 2%

Here are some of the companies that spent more than the government-mandated 2% towards CSR.

CSR spend growing at a CAGR of 15%

Government, Civil Society, and the Corporate are the three distinct pillars sustaining the nation-building process. Corporate Social Responsibility is moving away from cheque book charity donations to a more long-term strategic engagement. The cumulative CSR spend of BSE 200 companies has grown from Rs. 5,561 crore FY15 to Rs. 12,069 crore in FY21.

Unspent CSR

The proportion of unspent capital has been on the decline since FY15. The shortfall in spending was 5% of the total spend or Rs. 628 crore in FY21. The gap stood at 30% in FY15.

Sectors donating most towards corporate CSR

With Rs. 2,329 crore CSR spend Oil & Gas leads followed by Software & Services with Rs. 1,671 crore and Banks with Rs. 1,455 crore.

Source: Hurun Research Institute; EdelGiveHurun India Philanthropy List 2021

Complete list – EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2021