Indians need to be strategic in their philanthropy

Rohini Nilekani, founder-chairperson of Arghyam, engaged in stirring discussion on Saturday with ex-Shell India CEO Vikram Mehta on the moral trials and tribulations of being rich.
“We happened to get pretty rich a few years ago and I had to grapple with the question,” said Nilekani, who is also the better half of the former chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India, Nandan Nilekani.
As a journalist and somebody interested in issues of society and justice, Nilekani said that she always looked at the wealthy as up there and it has nothing to do with someone like her. But when wealth came into her hands and she found herself to be one of them, the same morals made her question herself. “I asked myself how I should behave now because I am on the other side,” she said.
Based on a study, Nilekani said that only one percent of India’s wealthy own 60% of its wealth. “I am afraid it includes me,” she said. “I think there should be public pressure on the wealthy. And the issue of who makes money and how should be on the table in a democracy like ours,” she added.
When Mehta raised the question of how the country’s rich should engage in philanthropy, Nilekani took her own example and said that she has set a thumb rule for herself. “If I spend this much on myself, I should spend multiples of that on social issues... There are millions of organisations working close to the ground. We should support their innovation and brilliance and engage in strategic cooperation,” she said.
Apart from mentioning her own philanthropic initiatives and the manner in which she set about achieving her goals, Nilekani also touched upon the country’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) rules of 2014 that direct large companies to spend 2% of their average profit in the last three years on social development activities.
“That isn’t enough... Many companies have terrible labour laws. Some of them dump pollutants into our rivers. What is the point of spending on CSR after doing that? Instead, they should spend on improving themselves from within,' she concluded.