Well before billionaire philanthropists Bill Gates and Warren Buffet reach out and urge their Indian counterparts to donate generously, IT barons in India and elsewhere are writing big cheques.
As a Gates-Buffet initiative to make rich people pledge up to half of their wealth for good causes spreads, Wipro boss Azim Premji's Rs 8,846-crore gift marks a trend.
Indian IT industries, their captains and spouses are now spearheading corporate philanthropy in India.
IT majors Infosys, MindTree, TCS and HCL have been launching and supporting ventures that create social equity.
Their top leaders have already set aside chunks of their wealth for charity. However, it is nowhere near half - yet.
"This is a good trend, still exceptional," said historian Ramachandra Guha. In the 19th century, as Indian capitalism grew, Mumbai philanthropists led charity - mostly Parsees like the Tata and the Godrej families.
Later in the mid 20th century, the Sarabhais, including space science pioneer Vikram Sarabhai, led it from Ahmedabad. In the 21st century, it is the turn of the IT barons.
"It should provoke and challenge other rich people. It should shame the Ambanis and (Karnataka minister) Janardan Reddy to donate money," Guha said.
Guha notes it is people outside the traditional Hindu business castes who always gave money for good causes. Unlike the tightfisted Indian business class, the IT lot - first generation entrepreneurs - is self contained and open enough to give, adds Harish Bijoor, an industry observer.
"Remarkably so, as the IT industry makes money largely from abroad, unlike other industries that depend on the home base."
On the contrary, the IT donor list is impressive. Infosys cofounder Naryana Murthy's family recently gave $5.2 million to Harvard University and its press for a series on Indian literary heritage. (Tata Group recently gave $50 million to Harvard Business School)
Murthy, reportedly, made a big donation to his alma mater Cornell too earlier. Murthy's wife and Sudha Murty reportedly sold Rs 430-crore worth Infosys shares to help him set up a venture capital fund to give credit to the poor. She leads the Infosys Foundation that works in villages in education, healthcare and arts and culture.
Infosys CEO and president Kris Gopalakrishnan donates around Rs 4 crore a year. Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and wife Rohini have gifted $5 million for the Yale India Initiative.
Forbes reported that over the years Rohini - who holds Infosys shares valued at $ 456 million - has donated $40 million to several causes.
Philanthropy is catching up among hardware majors too.
Shiv Nadar, the founder of HCL has pledged a tenth of his $4 billion wealth for charity.
Still, by western standards Indian charity amounts to peanuts. As a recent report pointed out, In India individual and corporate donations make up only a tenth of charitable giving - 65 per cent comes from the government and the remaining from abroad.
"By comparison, nearly threefourths of all philanthropy in the US is undertaken by individuals," noted 'An Overview of Philanthropy in India'.
Courtesy: Mail Today 
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