Indians Donating to International Universities
Till now India has been a net receiver of international philanthropy, much of it going to higher education in an earlier era. It is a telling statement on India’s growth story that rich Indians are now reversing the flow of philanthropic funds, and giving to educational institutions abroad. It is really these big-ticket donations by leading Indian philanthropists to institutions of higher learning abroad which have brought Indian philanthropy world attention.
Among those who have given to foreign universities are:
2. Shiv Nadar has given to create the Shiv Nadar Professor of Engineering Chair at Carnegie Mellon University.
3. Ratan Tata, who earned a degree in architecture from Cornell University in 1962, gave $50 million to Cornell in 2008 for agriculture and nutrition programmes and for the education of Indian students at Cornell. In 2010 the Tata Trusts gave $50 million to Harvard Business School to fund a new academic and residential building on its campus, the largest gift received by the institute from an international donor in its 102-year-old history. The building is named Tata Hall.
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4. Anand Mahindra, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Mahindra and Mahindra Group, has given $10 million to the Humanities Centre at Harvard. A Harvard alumnus, Mahindra gave the gift, the ‘largest’ in the Centre’s history, in honour of his mother Indira Mahindra.
5. N.R. Narayana Murthy gifted $5.2 million, to be managed by his son Rohan Murthy, to Harvard University Press to publish translations of Indian classics.
6. Nandan Nilekani donated $5 million to Yale University to underwrite the Yale India initiative.
More leaders, like Xander Group founder Siddharth Yog, have also donated to universities abroad. Yog gave $11 million to Harvard. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has instituted two post-doctoral fellowships for Indian students for studies in Oncology at MIT Boston. The latest to join the ranks of philanthropists giving to educational institutions abroad is Indra Nooyi,Pepsico’s India-born CEO, who in January 2016 gifted an undisclosed amount to her alma mater, the Yale School of Management, becoming its biggest alumni donor and the first woman to endow a deanship at a top business school.
Source: Pushpa Sundar, Giving with a Thousand Hands, 2017
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9 个月Are there any also wanting to give to Indian Universities or Centres of Excellence ?
Global Education | Management Consulting | Board Advisor
1 年Ankur Vohra My thoughts on why this is slow i.e., giving to India universities. 1) In US, individuals pledge their wealth for philanthropy. In India, it is largely facilitated though foundations and trusts. There are many societal and development issues in India such as healthcare, nutrition, clean water, etc. that they fund. 2) India ranks 85th in CPI. Givers might still be wary of giving their wealth to Indian institutions due to red-tape, corruption, money laundering, etc. In the Ashoka University case for example, the givers took active part in the administration of the university. There is trust. Western universities are very transparent in how they spend their donations. 3) Gov't processes may still be archaic. Many Indian institutions rely a lot on government funding. This will reduce by as much funding raised through donations. 4) Fear of taxman. Rich do not want to end up on any radar. 5)?Alumni centers play an important role in institution building. How many institutions build strong, alumni centers to build the institution? 6)?The best time to target alumni is when their children are about to enter college. But the issue here is most rich people are sending their children abroad to study.
Global Education | Management Consulting | Board Advisor
1 年Ankur Vohra, I am a bit late with my thoughts. I agree with you that philanthropic donations to Indian institutions are few and far between and are much smaller than the donations, often by the same donors, made to western universities. But the likes of Premji and others have set examples. E.g. - Fund set aside for education by Azim Premji -?Victor Menezes donation to IITB - Nandan Nilekani donation to IITB -?Prabha Kant Sinha donated to IIT Kharagpur - Shri Ram College of Commerce raising money from its alumni But I agree with you that such giving needs to be scaled – many more giving and much larger giving.
Sociologist/ mentor- facilitator, BPS Women University
1 年Philanthropy has institutionalized presence in higher education in the west. However, closer to home, it's seen in a different light. We need a paradigm shift in Indian education around such discourses. It's taking rather too long to emerge. Beyond certain pockets and campus islands of sorts, the broader scenario still appears in dark.
Adviser, Association of Indian Universities
1 年So well articulated Ankur Vohra.?Both government and corporates seem to be working in unison turning their back away from funding higher ed institutions.?How ironic! ?