Gautam Adani and family pledge Rs 60,000 cr for social causes on his 60th birthday

Adani Foundation, also headed by Gautam Adani, will manage the corpus for development in health care, education, and skill development, Adani told Bloomberg in an interview Thursday.

“This is one the largest transfers made to a foundation in the Indian corporate history,” he said.

Adani said the commitment also honours the birth centenary year of his father, Shantilal Adani.

"To utilise the potential of India’s demographic advantage, there is an ever-growing need to focus on the areas of healthcare, education, and skill development. The shortfalls in each of these areas are roadblocks for an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat.’  The Adani Foundation has gained rich experience in working with communities focused on integrated development efforts across all these areas. Addressing these challenges can significantly enhance the competence and competitiveness of our future workforce," said Adani Group in a statement.

“In addition to being the 100th birth anniversary of my inspiring father, this year also happens to be the year of my 60th birthday and therefore the family decided to contribute Rs. 60,000 crores towards charitable activities related to healthcare, education, and skill development, especially in the rural regions of our nation," said Gautam Adani.

With this donation, Adani has joined the ranks of global billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and Warren Buffett, who have pledged large portions of their wealth to philanthropy.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Adani, who is a first-generation entrepreneur, has a net worth of almost $92 billion and added nearly $15 billion to his wealth this year.

“We will invite three expert committees in coming months to formalise strategy and decide the allocation of funds in these three areas,” he said. The committees will have members from the Adani family in supporting roles, he added.

"At a very fundamental level, programs 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 programs," added Adani.

On this occasion, Azim Premji, Chairman of Azim Premji Foundation and Founder Chairman of Wipro Limited and widely recognized as one of the greatest philanthropists of our times 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”.

He further 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 endeavor”