Last year Shiv Nadar, chairman of HCL gave away the most money to charity. He put away Rs 630 crore of his total wealth which is estimated at Rs 73,000 crore for causes close to his heart. Former Infosys chief executive Kris Gopalkrishnan was ranked second with Rs 313 crore and Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani third with a contribution of Rs 303 crore. Philanthropy in India is certainly not on the level of contributions made by tech giants in the US (Bill Gates alone has pledged $60 billion to charitable causes) but it is still alive and ticking. India has a long list of business leaders who make contributions to charitable causes and this list in growing. The standard for giving back was set by American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie who said: “No man can become rich without himself enriching others.” Philanthropy is embedded in the human soul. It is the love for fellow humans that makes charity possible. Also, the knowledge that large amounts of wealth cannot be spent in one’s life time. It is indeed a tribute to human kind that those who toiled to amass wealth also have the ability to give it away to those less fortunate than themselves.
