Philanthropy: V Guard’s Chittilappilly sells shares worth $17.8M to fund social initiatives

(Our Bureau, June 22) Kochouseph Chittilappilly, chairman emeritus, V Guard Industries Limited, sold 50 lakh shares valued at ₹132 crore ($17.8 million) to fund his philanthropic pursuits under the aegis of K Chittilappilly Foundation (KCF). In February this year, he sold 40 lakh shares worth ₹90 crore. Some of his charity projects include medical help for the poor, meeting housing needs for those below the poverty line, supporting women-led Self-Help Groups with micro enterprises, and assisting charitable organizations with a proven track record. About a decade ago, when Chittilappilly was 60 and still at the helm of his business, he had donated his kidney to a 42-year-old truck driver. This set him apart from the CSR initiatives undertaken by other companies. Today, the company is helmed by his son Mithun, who studied Management at the University of Melbourne and proceeded to work with companies such as Deloitte and HP, before joining V Guard. Incidentally, Chittilappilly, who is a billionaire today, had started out with a small voltage stabilizer business with just two employees and a capital of ₹1,00,000 from his father back in 1977. Today, the electrical appliances company has an annual turnover of nearly ₹3,000 crore and has diversified into amusement parks and real estate as well.

“Creating wealth is not success. Success is in building an enterprise or a product, marketing it and making it tick. We work not just to create wealth, but to create more and more success stories,” he said.

This leads us to ask: How many rich Indians make a deliberate effort to give back to society like Chittilappilly? And who’s more generous: Indians here or those living abroad? RELATED READ: Bahrain-based Ravi Pillai gifts $2M for Covid relief in India    

FUND RAISING: MacKenzie Scott doles out grants to 13 Indian non-profits

(Our Bureau, June 19) ACT Grants, The/Nudge Foundation and at least 11 more Indian non-profits have received substantial donations from American philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. This is probably the single largest grant made in a single year by a donor to Indian NGOs outside of their own foundations, Amit Chandra, a private equity investor and philanthropist, told Bloomberg Quint.

$2.7 billion giveaway program

It’s a part of Scott’s global giveaway initiative of $2.7 billion to a variety of charities. The 51-year-old is worth an estimated $60 billion after her divorce with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos left her with a 4% stake in the e-commerce behemoth. Writing in a blog post earlier this week, Scott said:

“We are governed by a humbling belief that it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands, and that the solutions are best designed and implemented by others.” 

Indian recipients

Scott, her husband Dan Jewett and their team run through a rigorous process of research and impact evaluation before releasing the gifts. The Indian spread represents a mix of primarily grassroot organizations across diverse causes ranging from Covid-19 management and rural education to affordable healthcare and poverty alleviation. Here are the recipients.

1. ACT Grants (Covid-19)
2. Digital Green (farmer-focused)
3. Dream a Dream (education)
4. GiveIndia (online fundraising)
5. GOONJ (disaster relief and humanitarian aid)
6. Jan Sahas (anti-forced labous)
7. Magic Bus (life skills)
8. Mann Deshi Foundation (rural women)
9. Piramal Swasthya (affordable healthcare)
10. Professional Assistance for Development Action (rural communities)
11. Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action (urban women)
12. The Antara Foundation (child health)
13. The/Nudge Foundation (poverty alleviation)

• The pandemic exposed the public health faultlines in the country drawing the attention of the global philanthropic ecosystem to India's developmental needs, said Atul Satija, chief executive of GiveIndia and founder of The/Nudge Foundation told Bloomberg Quint. He said it took just 2 weeks for the money to come in the bank versus the 3-6 months such grants usually take.
• See Scott's tweet where she exhorts people to celebrate the recipients of her grant 
• ALSO READ: MacKenzie Scott's blogpost announcing the global donations
• RELATED READ: Indian American NGO to build 100 oxygen plants in India

COVID-19: Sundar Pichai-led Google to boost India’s rural healthcare with $15.3M grant

(Our Bureau, June 18) Sundar Pichai-led Google will invest ₹113 crore ($15.3 million) to strengthen healthcare infrastructure in India’s rural areas in their fight against COVID-19. In a statement, the company said that it will invest ₹109 crore to support healthcare facilities and a further ₹3.6 crore to help upskill frontline workers. The Mountain View, California, headquartered company has tied up with NGOs such as GiveIndia, Apollo Medskills, ARMMAN, and PATH to fulfill these commitments.

“Google is proud to be supporting our partners as they build a bigger, better-equipped healthcare system, to help India steady itself after the second wave, and lay the foundations for a sustainable and future-ready healthcare system,” Sanjay Gupta, country head and vice president, Google India told Business Line.

In the last five years, the software giant has granted funds to the tune of $57 million to India. In April this year, Pichai had announced $18 million for COVID-19 response. This included two grants to provide cash assistance to families hit hardest by the crisis, and UNICEF to help get urgent medical supplies. In April 2020, Pichai had made a personal contribution of ₹5crore to GiveIndia to help with the first wave of the pandemic.

• See Sundar Pichai's tweet announcing the grant and follow him on Twitter and Instagram
• RELATED READ: Pichai, Nadella and Khosla join India’s Covid-19 fight

COVID-19: Indian American co-develops ventilator sharing tech for Indian hospitals

(Our Bureau, June 17) Dr Shriya Srinivasan, an Indian American postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has co-developed a low-cost device that provides oxygen support to two patients from a single ventilator. The splitter named iSave got approval from India’s Central Drug Standard Control Organisation and has already been deployed at some hospitals in Chennai, Bengaluru and Vishakapatnam for Covid-19 patients. iSave’s USP: It can personalize respiratory support with patient-specific oxygen volume and pressure while mitigating possibilities of cross-contamination. Also, ICU staff can monitor it outside the patient’s room and that reduces the exposure risk to doctors and nurses. Hailing from a family of Indian immigrants, Dr Srinivasan is a biomedical engineer, a non-profit entrepreneur and TedX speaker who studied at MIT and HMX – Harvard Medical School. In addition, she co-founded a Bharatnatyam-focused dance company that brings together Indian American artists from 8 cities and also conducts performances in India.

• WATCH: Shriya Srinivasan talks about the next step in human prosthesis
• RELATED READ: Indian American non-profit to fund 100 oxygen plants in India

Diversity in education: Satya Nadella, wife gift $2M to US university

(Our Bureau, June 15) Satya Nadella and his wife Anu have donated $2 million (₹14.6 crore) to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) to help the institution recruit and retain more undergraduate and graduate students from marginalized communities. Hyderabad-born Nadella himself earned his master’s in Computer Science from UWM in 1990 and wants to encourage students to build careers in computer science, data science, and information technology.

“We know that while talent is everywhere, opportunity is not. And when people have access to education and skilling, they create new opportunity for themselves and their communities,” Satya and Anu Nadella said in a statement.

The Microsoft CEO’s donation will be directed towards a university fund that aims to promote diversity in tech education; the program will support pre-college programming to get K-12 students oriented towards the field early on. A bulk of the money will also be used for students' college scholarships and emergency grants for students at risk of dropping out due to financial constraints.

• RELATED READ: Satya Nadella’s family commits $15 million to Seattle hospital

COVID: Bahrain-based Ravi Pillai gifts $2M for Covid relief in India

(Our Bureau, June 11) Bahrain-based B Ravi Pillai, founder of the $7.8 billion RP Group, has announced that he will donate ₹15 crore ($2 million) towards Covid relief efforts in India. Of this, ₹5 crore ($684,000) will be handed over to Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan for state-specific relief work and the rest will go to Covid-hit families, the Indian businessman said. Gulf News quoted Pillai, who has a net worth of $2.5 billion, as saying that the donation will also cover expatriate Keralites living in the UAE. The money will be used towards helping families facing financial crises due to the pandemic, medical expenses, wedding expenses, and also for financially strained widows.  

“I understand that this is a period of profound crisis when one is expected to take care of the needy and the underprivileged. Hence, to me, easing their pain is of utmost importance,” he said. 

Kerala-born Pillai, who received the Padma Shri in 2010, said that he wanted to give the entire relief amount before Onam in August. The RP Group has interests in construction, hospitality, steel, cement, and oil and gas industries; it also holds a stake in the Leela Hotel, Kovalam.  

• RELATED READ: Why Indians are making a beeline for UAE’s Golden Visa