Forbes published this article:
Gautam Adani and his family have pledged to donate 600 billion rupees ($7.7 billion) to a range of social causes to mark his 60th birthday on Friday and to pay tribute to the birth centenary year of his father, Shantilal Adani.
The funds, which will be managed by the Adani Foundation, will be used for charitable activities in the areas of healthcare, education and skills development, with a particular focus on India’s rural regions.
“Our experience in large project planning and execution and the learnings from the work done by the Adani Foundation will help us uniquely accelerate these programs,” Adani said in a statement released on Thursday.
India’s wealthiest people have been criticized in the past for not donating more to philanthropy causes. The India Philanthropy Report 2021 by global consultancy firm Bain and Co. said that the country’s ultra-rich individuals with a net worth of more than 500 billion rupees donated 0.5% of their wealth.
Adani’s generous commitment places him among the select few Indian billionaires who have pledged part of their wealth to philanthropy. Azim Premji, founder and chairman of Wipro, donated in 2021 an estimated $1.3 billion of his family's wealth to social causes. “Gautam Adani and his family’s commitment towards philanthropy should set an example that we can all try to live Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of Trusteeship of Wealth at the peak of our business success and need not wait for our sunset years," Premji said in the Adani Group's statement.
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