Art Of Giving And Our Economic Aspirations

To be world class, India's top education institutions need its wealthy to donate generously

- Ram Kelkar

India is experiencing an unprecedented period of wealth creation as a result of rapid economic growth. It is fast catching up with the US and China in creating wealth, and now ranks third in global billionaire rankings. Many of these newly minted billionaires are self-made, including several who are alumni of elite universities and institutes.

All this wealth, how much giving? Philanthropy in India has evolved in recent decades.

Cumulative donations have grown almost sixfold in five years.

From just under Rs 2,500 crore to more than Rs 14,750 crore, according to research published by Hurun India.

Education is now the most favoured cause, receiving Rs 9,659 crore.

But note that charitable giving in the US reached $485 billion in 2021 according to the 'Giving USA 2022' report.

So, US charitable giving is roughly 263 times the dollar value of the total raised in India.

But US GDP is only 7.2 times Indian GDP, as per World Bank statistics.

Americans are therefore 36 times as generous as Indians when it comes to philanthropy.

And this is despite just 4.4 times the number of billionaires, as per latest Forbes 2022 ranking.

Plus, in India, Azim Premji alone constitutes twothird of the total philanthropy.