Keen on standing on his own leg, Gautam Adani left college and then started as a diamond sorter at Mahindra Brothers. Today, the 60-year-old Chairman of Adani Group manages several businesses in areas of energy, agriculture, defence, and aerospace.
He is also the president of the Adani Foundation, the company’s social responsibility arm founded in 1996. It has set up Adani Vidya Mandir, school for underprivileged children in Ahmedabad, Bhadreshwar, and other states and supports 300 government schools, educating as many as 100,000 children.
Gautam Adani has a net worth of $96.9 billion. Notably, he has contributed Rs 76 crore to a social cause. Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani turned 60 yesterday as he celebrated his birthday on his special occasion.
He has pledged to donate Rs 60,000 crore ($7.7 billion) to social causes. His corpus will be administered by the Adani Foundation, thus making it one of the biggest transfers to a philanthropic trust in India.
“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 crore towards charitable activities,” said Adani.
The Adani family has now shown a strong philanthropic interest in various sectors including healthcare, education and skill development, particularly in India’s rural regions.
Meanwhile, Wipro chairman Azim Premji heaped praise on Gautam Adani. “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.”
In its, India Philanthropy List 2018, Hurun Research Institute mentioned that Indian philanthropy was at Rs 2310 crore last year with an average donation per philanthropist being Rs 61 crores.
Mumbai tops the list in the most number of philanthropists at 12 and then Bengaluru (6) and Ahmedabad (4).