Infrastructure tycoon Gautam Adani controls Mundra Port, India’s largest private port, in his home state of Gujarat. The Adani Group’s interests span infrastructure, commodities, power generation and transmission and real estate. Adani owns Abbot Point, a coal mining project in Australia, whose Carmichael coal mine is billed as one of the world’s largest. Adani acquired a majority stake in Mumbai International Airport, India’s second-busiest airport, in September 2020.

The Adani Foundation works in four key areas such as Education, Community Health, Sustainable Livelihood, and Community Infrastructure Development, in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals. On 29th March 2020, Gautam Adani led Adani Foundation to announce a NR 100 crore donation to PM CARES Fund.

Anu Aga along with her family hold the majority stake for the listed engineering company, Thermax. Anu’s father had started the company and her husband Rohinton grew it and took it public. In 1994 Rohinton had a heart attack and a stroke and after his illness, Anu joined the company in HR and after a few years headed it. The board appointed her as the Chairperson after Rohinton’s demise in 1996. In 2004 she stepped down as the Chair.

The family has committed 30% of their income of Thermax’s dividend towards philanthropic causes. Since her retirement, she has been focusing on social causes and continues to be closely associated with the Thermax Foundation. The family’s primary focus of philanthropic work is primary education for the underprivileged. She and her daughter Meher are on the board of Akanksha which runs 21 schools in Pune and Mumbai through a PPP agreement with the Municipal Corporations, out of which Thermax supports 5 schools.

Anu was involved with Teach for India ever since its inception 12 years ago and was the Chair for ten years. TFI’s mission is to bridge the inequity gap in education. Anu was actively involved with national and local associations such as Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and had served as the Chairperson of CII’s Western Region. She has written extensively and given talks on the subjects of corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, role of women and education and her experience of dealing with death.

Anil Agarwal started a small business of scrap metal in 1976 called Vedanta Resources. He also bought Shamsher Sterling Corporation, a cable company in the same year — which was later renamed to Sterlite Industries.

In September 2014, Anil Agarwal pledged to donate 75% of his wealth to charity. The Vedanta Foundation primary areas of focus are education & computer literacy, vocational training, women & child empowerment, and community welfare.

His company was also the first Indian company to get listed in the London Stock Exchange.

Nita Ambani is a board member of Reliance Industries and East India Hotels, and owns the cricket team – Mumbai Indians, in the Indian Premier League. She is also the Founder and Chairperson of Dhirubhai Ambani International School, one of India’s best international schools. In 2015, Nita Ambani founded an organization called Football Sports Development Limited, which focuses on developing sports in India through grassroots programs.

She is the founder and chairperson of the Reliance Foundation. Founded in 2010, The Foundation has a comprehensive development approach. Its prime objective is to create and support meaningful activities through innovative institutions to address some of India’s most pressing developmental challenges. The Foundation is currently focusing on creating change in areas of Rural Transformation, Health, Education, Sports for Development, Disaster Response, Arts, Culture & Heritage and Urban Renewal.

In 2020, she became the only Indian to be named in the Town and Country Magazine’s list of Top Global Philanthropists, following her foundation’s donation for COVID-19 relief.

Rahul Bajaj is the head of the Bajaj Group. Over the years, Rahul has held prominent positions in the world of business and politics. He was the President of Confederation of Indian Industry twice and was nominated by the President of India as the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. He was also elected to the Upper House of Parliament, Rajya Sabha in 2006.

Rahul spearheads several charitable trusts including Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation, which strives to serve the ideals of Shri Jamnalal Bajaj and promotes Gandhian constructive activities in India and abroad by developing the socio economic arena in India.

Rahul was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2001. He is also the recipicient of honorary doctorates from six universities.

Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla is the Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group. He chairs the Boards of all of the Group’s major companies in India and globally. The global companies include Novelis, Birla Carbon, Aditya Birla Minerals, Aditya Birla Chemicals, Domsjö Fabriker and Terrace Bay Pulp Mill. In India, he chairs the Boards of Hindalco, Grasim, UltraTech, Vodafone Idea and Aditya Birla Capital Limited. Mr. Birla is deeply engaged with Educational Institutions. He is the Chancellor, of the renowned Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), with campuses in Pilani, Goa, Hyderabad and Dubai. Mr. Birla is the Chairman of IIM, Ahmedabad. He is a Director of the G. D. Birla Medical Research & Education Foundation. He serves on the London Business School’s Asia Pacific Advisory Board and is a Honorary Fellow of the London Business School.

A firm practitioner of the trusteeship concept, Mr. Birla has institutionalized the concept of caring and giving at the Aditya Birla Group. With his mandate, the Group is involved in meaningful welfare driven activities that distinctively impact the quality of life of the weaker sections of society, surrounding hundreds of villages that are among the poorest in India, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Egypt. In April 2020, Aditya Birla Group donated to the PM CARES Fund, FICCI-Aditya Birla CSR Centre for Excellence.

Mr. Birla has won recognition for his exemplary contribution to leadership processes and institution/systems building and has recieved many awards for his accomplishments.

Archana Chandra is the CEO & Board Member of Jai Vakeel Foundation & Research Centre, which is one of the oldest and largest NGOs serving intellectually challenged in the country. She is a Trustee of SRCC, which runs one of the leading super specialty children’s hospitals in the country serving all strata of society and also serves on the Advisory Boards of Antarang and Anamitra. Amit Chandra is the Founder & Chairman of Bain Capital’s India office. He is/has served as a Member of the Board of Directors of a number of leading companies & not for profits, such as Akanksha Foundation, Ashoka University, Genpact, L&T Finance, Piramal Enterprises, Tata Sons, and Tata Trusts.

They co-founded the professionally run A.T.E. Chandra Foundation which takes a strategic “portfolio approach” to social sector investments, focusing largely on two verticals. In the area of Social Sector Capacity Building it is one of the largest supporters in the country of social sector leadership and development training, investor in building the philanthropic eco-system that serves the sector at large, and in advocating the need for investing in capacity building by demonstrating evidence and via advocacy. It’s Sustainable Rural Development vertical is key part of one of the largest water for farmers program in the country, and also supports many significant natural farming initiatives. The Foundation works in close collaboration with other leading Foundations such as Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Caring Friends, Central Square Foundation, EdelGive, Omidyar Networks, and Rohini Nilenkani Philantropies. It has materially supported what is believed are iconic philanthropic institutions and movements such as Ashoka University, Bridgespan India, Centre for Social Impact & Philantrophy, DaanUtsav, Olympic Gold Quest, and SRCC Childrens Hospital.

Amit was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2007. Archana and Amit were named in Asia’s Heroes of Philanthropy list by Forbes in 2016. They are signatories to the www.LivingMyPromise.org pledge in which over 80 Indians have pledged to donate over 50% of their wealth.