Tannuka Juneja
Asia’s richest man and head of a logistics-to-energy conglomerate, Adani Group, Gautam Adani and his family have announced to donate ₹60,000 crore to charity to mark his 60th birthday. The money committed for charity is just over 8 per cent of Adani’s $92 billion wealth.
The donation will be managed by the Adani Foundation and used be used primarily for healthcare, education and skill development, said the statement issued to make the announcement.
Adani, a first-generation entrepreneur who turned a small agri-trading firm into a conglomerate spanning coal trading and mining, ports and airports, power generation, gas distribution, green energy, data centre and cement, turns 60 on June 24. The year 2022 is also the centenary birth anniversary of Gautam Adani’s father Shantilal Adani, added the official statement.
With the pledge, Adani has followed the footsteps of Wipro’s Azim Premji and Vedanta’s Anil Agarwal, who have committed a large part of their wealth to philanthropy.
Gautam Adani underlined the rich experience of his foundation in working with communities focused on integrated development efforts to be driving the donation in healthcare, education and skill development.
“At a very fundamental level, programmes related to all these three areas should be seen holistically and they collectively form the drivers to build an equitable and future-ready India. 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 programmes,” he said.
In his statement issued on this occasion, Azim Premji, Chairman, Azim Premji Foundation, and founder chairman of Wipro Limited, said, “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”.
The statement added, “the challenges and possibilities of our country demand that we work together as one, cutting across all divides of wealth, region, religion, caste, and more. I wish Gautam Adani and his Foundation the very best in this important national endeavour”.
