India's rich among least active in charity
Tuesday, 23 March 2010, 23:51 IST   |    31 Comments
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India's rich among least active in charity
Mumbai: The number of rich Indians continues to rise, but when it comes to donation for charity these rich people take a back seat, according to a new study by business consultancy Bain & Co. Since 2000 the number of high net worth individuals has grown by 11 percent every year and has now grown to 115,000 now, according to Reuters. Charitable giving in India probably totalled about $7.5 billion in 2009, according to the study by Bain & Co, equivalent to about 0.6 percent of the country's GDP. That percentage is higher than Brazil's 0.3 percent and rival China's 0.1 percent, but it falls way short of the 2.2 percent in the United States, and 1.3 percent in Britain, the report said. Most Indians have no qualms about giving cash to family, friends, household staff and religious institutions, but given the scale of poverty -- an estimated 40 percent of India's 1.1-billion population lives on less than $1.25 a day -- Indians need to become way more generous, said Bain partner Arpan Sheth. "Should individuals, particularly the well-off, be giving more? Can they afford to make larger donations? The answer to both these questions is absolutely yes," Sheth said at the first Indian Philanthropy Forum in Mumbai, the country's financial hub. There are an estimated 2.5 million non-profit organisations in India, and about half of all donations in the country go to religious, sports and cultural organisations, the Bain study showed. A huge 65 percent of donations comes from the central and state governments, with a focus on disaster relief. A large amount also comes from foreign organisations. Only 10 percent comes from individuals and corporates, in sharp contrast to the United States, where 75 percent of charitable giving is from individuals and corporates, Sheth said. "Accumulation of wealth is a fairly recent phenomenon in India -- it really began only with the opening of the markets, and we do have a history of scarcity. So it may be harder for people to let go of their newly-earned wealth," Sheth added.

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