-Excerpt- Apart from Tata, India’s biggest group, which is majority-owned by charitable trusts, and one or two other smaller examples, India’s wealthy old-style business families have traditionally built prestigious temples and sometimes schools, often in their home towns, but little else.
The new mega-rich, who have emerged in information technology, real estate and elsewhere since the economy opened up 20 years ago, have not yet grasped the idea of giving outside their own geographical areas or business sectors, though some have made high profile donations to their universities (notably Harvard and Yale).
The most significant exception is Azim Premji of the Wipro IT group, who in 2010 made a $2bn donation for education and social projects that possibly reflected the charitable traditions of his Ismaili Muslim faith.
Most important in all this, I guess, is the motivation of the ‘givers’, and how effectively their money is used.
A longer version of this article appears on John Elliott’s Riding the Elephant current affairs blog – http://ridingtheelephant.wordpress.com/
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Earlier & Related – Azim Premji at Ismailimail Archives:
- India: Azim Premji Foundation Donates $132 million (US Dollars) Towards COVID-19 Relief Fund via Forbes.com
- Azim Premji: Asia’s most generous philanthropist- Forbes Asia
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- The Outstanding Achievement Award goes to Azim Premji | CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2014
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- Gates and Buffett show rich Indians how to help the poor | John Elliott | Independent The Foreign Desk Blogs
- Azim Premji: The bare-bones billionaire – The Globe and Mail
- BBC News – Wipro’s Azim Premji makes $2bn Indian charity gift
- Azim Premji endows new university in Bangalore, Karnataka Legislature passes Azim Premji University Bill
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- American Chronicle | India: Tackle Muslim societies then terror
- Couple of Articles on Azim Premji
- Charlie Rose with Azim Premji
- Dale Carnegie recognizes and honors Azim Premji and his team at Wipro
- New book about Indian Ismaili Azim Premji
- Ismailis in the News: Azim Premji
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