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3 Indians among Forbes Asia's 2023 Heroes of Philanthropy
New entrants to the list include Indian entrepreneur and co-founder of Zerodha, Nikhil Kamath, who became the country’s latest signatory to the Giving Pledge.
(From left to right) K P Singh, Nandan Nilekani and Nikhil Kamath / Image - Forbes Asia's 2023 Heroes of Philanthropy
Forbes Asia has named fifteen people—including three Indians—Heroes of Philanthropy for their dedication and generous donations to worthy causes in the last year. These include Kushal Pal Singh, Nandan Nilekani, and Nikhil Kamath.
As the most recent Indian national to join the Giving Pledge, Kamath is an entrepreneur, co-founder of Zerodha, and the country's youngest billionaire. The Pledge is an initiative by Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Melinda French Gates to encourage wealthy individuals to pledge a significant portion of their fortunes to charitable organizations.
In his commitment letter, the 37-year-old shared his passion for the foundation's goal of building a more equitable society and his own personal interests in energy, education, health, and climate change. Kamath has joined the global initiative following Indian tycoons, Wipro founder Azim Premji (2013), Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (2016), and Infosys cofounder Nandan Nilekani and his wife Rohini (2017). He has also been contributing to charity through his YouTube podcast series “WTF is”.
DLF chairman emeritus Kushal Pal Singh (K P Singh) disposed of 0.59 percent of his shares in the Delhi-based property developer in August 2023, raising US$ 89 million (₹7.3 billion), to support charitable causes, as reported by the company.
In 2020, he established the KP Singh Foundation to demonstrate his steadfast determination to bring about long-lasting, revolutionary change in India. It came after the K.P. Singh Charitable Foundation Trust and the K.P. Singh Foundation Trust were set up.
From 1961 until his retirement as chairman in 2020, Singh was an integral part of DLF. Renowned for elevating the once-rural village of Gurgaon (now known as Gurugram) to the status of a modern metropolis, he constructed skyscrapers housing multinational technology, telecommunications, consumer goods, and financial institutions.
In June 2023, to commemorate his 50-year association with the technology institute, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani gave US$ 38 million (₹3.2 billion) to his alma mater, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. “This donation is more than just a financial contribution; it is a tribute to the place that has given me so much and a commitment to the students who will shape our world tomorrow,” Nilekani said when signing the memorandum of understanding (MoU).
A month after the donation, the administrative headquarters of the technology institute was renamed the Nandan Nilekani Main Building in recognition of the donor's generosity. He has given generously to many educational organizations in the last year. The beneficiaries include, EkStep Foundation, a Bangalore-based education initiative that he chairs, AI4Bharat, a research lab at IIT Madras that’s developing open-source resources for Indian languages. In addition, Nilekani and his wife, Rohini, signed the Giving Pledge in 2017.
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