Newsmaker

Gates, Buffett bid to open wealthy Indians' wallets

By Penny Macrae (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-21 08:05

A $2 billion education donation by high-tech tycoon Azim Premji late last year was a rare exception - and shone a harsh light on the patchy philanthropic track record of India's wealthy.

Arpan Sheth, a consultant for Bain who is author of a recent overview of Indian philanthropy, said the country's charitable potential is huge.

"Should individuals (in India), particularly the well-off, be giving more? And can they afford to make more and larger donations? The answer to both questions is, 'Absolutely yes'," he said.

Philanthropic activity has failed to keep pace with growing riches, partly, Sheth believes, because the rapid accumulation of individual wealth is still a relatively new phenomenon.

"We have a history of scarcity and so it takes a while to build confidence that the future will be better on a sustainable basis and let go of newly earned wealth," Sheth said.

There is also a suspicion that charities are badly managed and so donors fear their contributions "won't be put to good use or are at risk of being misappropriated", Sheth added.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the charity set up by the software tycoon and his wife, was tight-lipped about the visit, citing security reasons.

"The visit of Bill and Melinda Gates starts Tuesday," said a spokesman.

He declined to give details about who they would meet but India's Business Standard newspaper reported Gates, his wife and Buffett would hold talks with the country's wealthy on Thursday in New Delhi.

There is no doubt that the need to help India's teeming poor is glaring.

Some 42 percent of Indians, or 455 million people, live on less than $1.25 a day, according to the World Bank. India's statistics on health, infant mortality and malnutrition are worse than those for some countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

India's richest man Mukesh Ambani, who heads the country's largest private company Reliance Industries, warned earlier this month that "there will be no peace" if people are "discontented, deprived, unhappy and therefore angry".

Agence France-Presse