HCL's Shiv Nadar tops philanthropy list in India, Gautam Adani at 5th place

Mumbai: HCL Technologies' Shiv Nadar has trumped richest Indians in generosity yet again by being the biggest individual donor for philanthropic causes in FY24.

Nadar's share in philanthropy increased 5 per cent to Rs 2,153 crore in FY24, much higher than the richest Indian Gautam Adani's Rs 330 crore and second richest Indian Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries' Rs 407 crore, as per the Edelgive-Hurun India Philanthropy List.

Ambani has moved up one place to be second on the giving list, while Adani has maintained his fifth place.

The Bajaj family with interests in auto and finance has moved up three places with a 33 per cent growth in giving at Rs 352 crore, while Kumarmangalam Birla and family stands fourth on the list with Rs 334 crore in total donations, which were up 17 per cent over the year-ago period.

In all, there were 203 individuals who donated more than Rs 5 crore. As per Hurun's rich list, there were 1,539 individuals having a networth of over Rs 1,000 crore each and their cumulative wealth shot up 46 per cent in the year.

Interestingly, the average donation by the 203 donors on the list has decreased sharply to Rs 43 crore from the Rs 71 crore by the 119 donors in the 2023 list.

Nadar stood third on the rich list with a fortune of Rs 3.14 lakh crore, as against Adani's Rs 11.6 lakh crore and Ambani's Rs 10.14 lakh crore.

Asked if the private sector's reluctance to invest in business expansion has had a positive rub-off on the social sector, Edelgive's Chief Executive Naghma Mulla replied in the negative.

Hurun India's Founder and Chief Researcher Anas Rahman Junaid pointed to a set of nine companies led by promoters on the list, who have donated more than the 2 per cent mandated as corporate social responsibility (CSR) spends.

Junaid explained that a promoter's holding in a company is used to compute the overall giving in addition to individual contributions.

This list of nine includes Reliance Industries, which donated Rs 900 crore as against the mandated Rs 840 crore and also Yardi Software India which donated Rs 25 crore as against the mandated Rs 70 lakh.

Among the women, 65-year-old Rohini Nilekani topped the list of donors with a contribution of Rs 154 crore primarily centered around ecosystem building and was followed by Susmita Bagchi at Rs 90 crore.

Nandan Nilekani, Rohini's husband, upped his contributions for social good by 62 per cent to Rs 307 crore, which made him move two places to the sixth rank on the list.

Wipro's Azim Premji's donation dropped to Rs 152 crore in FY24 from the Rs 1,774 crore in the year-ago period which had earned him the second spot on the givers' list.

Education topped the causes receiving philanthropists' money accounting for Rs 3,680 crore in donations and was followed by healthcare at a distant Rs 626 crore and rural transformation at Rs 331 crore.