India’s philanthropist club swells, but donations shrink from covid peak
₹5 crore or more to charity expanded to a record 119 individuals in 2022-23, but their average donation size has halved from the pandemic-era peak, showed the latest EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy list released on Thursday. In 2021-22, a total 108 individuals had made it to the list. The list has grown consistently over the past seven years, from having just 27 individuals in 2016-17.
However, the average size of donations made by this set has not been as consistent. The average donation was ₹86 crore in 2016-17, which rose to ₹107 crore and ₹140 crore in 2019-20 and 2020-21, respectively. In 2021-22, the figure fell to ₹52 crore, and has grown to ₹71 crore in 2022-23.
The 119 topmost philanthropists collectively donated ₹8,445 crore in 2022-23, up from ₹5,623 crore donated by those on the list a year ago. Donations were measured by the value of cash or cash equivalents pledged by those born and bred in India, regardless of their country of passport. Shiv Nadar, the founder of HCL Technologies, emerged as the most generous philanthropist for the second straight year, donating ₹2,042 crore to charitable causes, up 76%.
He was followed by Wipro’s Azim Premji ( ₹1,774 crore). The list had 25 new entrants, led by K. Dinesh, one of the seven co-founders of Infosys, who donated ₹47 crore.
Mukesh Ambani, chairperson of Reliance Industries and Asia's richest man, was third at ₹376 crore. Several other well-known industrialists, including Kumar Mangalam Birla, Gautam Adani, the Bajaj family, Anil Agrawal, and Cyrus Poonawalla, were among the top donors on the list. Wipro’s Azim Premji increased his contribution the most generously last fiscal, raising it by ₹1,290 crore since the previous year.
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