Warrant Buffet, Bill Gates…These two have indeed brought out a revolution and have shown their generosity by way of sharing their huge fortunes. Of the top 10 billionaires in the world, there are 3 Indians in the list and have we ever wondered why Indians are not in the news for sharing their wealth? Is it Greed for more and become richer? We have always been criticizing the Ambani’s or the Mittal’s or the Tata’s but the fact is that they are also sharing their fortune but not as big as what the Western countries have been doing. A recent article which I came across in Times Life, supplement of Times of India it clearly gave out the reasons for the non-performing of Indian Billionaires in the Philanthropy market. As per the article, “In the West, People don’t leave behind much to the family or children” as this is not the case in India as wealth is transferred to the next generation and they make it a point to accumulate as much wealth as possible during their lifetime. During my interation with Mr V.Balasubramanian, Senior Assistant Editor at Economic Times I found that there were other reasons behind this According to him, it’s the trust which Indian’s don’t have within themselves, Financial stable personnel are not sure of where the money they give for charity is going to, they fear its going the wrong hands. “Philanthropy through one’s own wealth is far interior as compared to what the rich give in the West, Indians are tight fisted”. Corporates have started their own CSR initiatives by giving money to the deserved by going down to the pyramid instead of going through other sources/agencies. Interesting to know that there are firms who have a strict policy of setting aside atleast 5% of their profits for Charity before it goes as distribution by way of dividends. If India’s richest 100 shared their wealth the way Buffet or Gates did, almost $250 Billion can be generated and this is 1/4th of India’s current GDP. Imagine this happens, almost all the people constituting the BPL category will come above the poverty line and would indeed project India as a developed nation. This can be considered as a shortcut to success but this wouldn’t happen without the help from the Big Shots. When there are acquisitions happening and most of them happening from India especially the Vedanta’s, Tata’s, Mittals my question to them is why not acquire a majority of the population who are below the poverty line??
Recently 40 US Billionaires were asked by both Gates and Buffet to share their wealth and they agreed to give away half their wealth. Ratan Tata or Narayana Murthy in my opinion should follow the foot steps and urge other billionaires in bringing out this practice. In India the biggest act of Philanthropy is creating jobs and that’s what most of the Indian Corporates have been practicing but more needs to be done with respect to this considering the population rise in a country like India.
