The title of India’s biggest philanthropist for 2025 doesn’t belong to the nation’s wealthiest men, but to tech pioneer Shiv Nadar, who donated a massive ₹2,708 crore, outpacing the next-ranked giver, Mukesh Ambani, by more than four times
OdishaPlus Bureau
When we talk about billionaires in India, names like Ambani, Adani, and Tata instantly come to mind. They are the titans of industry, the faces of Indian wealth, and, to be sure, significant philanthropists in their own right. But when the 2025 ledgers were opened and the donations were tallied, one man stood in a league of his own, quietly eclipsing their contributions several times over.
That man is Shiv Nadar.
The 80-year-old founder of HCL Technologies, a pioneer of India’s IT revolution, has been named “India’s Most Generous” for the fourth consecutive time. According to the recently released EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2025, Nadar and his family donated an astounding ₹2,708 crore in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
Let’s break that number down. It amounts to ₹7.4 crore donated every single day for a year. This figure not only placed him at the undisputed top of the list but also represented a 26% increase from his already massive donations the previous year.
To put this in perspective, the man in the number two spot, Mukesh Ambani and his family, made a very generous donation of ₹626 crore. The Bajaj family followed with ₹446 crore, and Gautam Adani and his family contributed ₹386 crore. Nadar’s contribution isn’t just leading the pack; it’s more than four times larger than the next highest donation.
So, where does all this money go? For Nadar, the answer has been clear for decades: education.
Long before “startup” was a buzzword, Shiv Nadar was building a tech empire in a garage. But in 1994, he also founded the Shiv Nadar Foundation, committing to a vision of “creative philanthropy.” His goal was not just to write cheques, but to build world-class educational institutions that would last for generations and serve as a “fountain-head of creative energy.”
His foundation is the engine behind his giving. It runs the Shiv Nadar University, a private research university aiming to bring multidisciplinary, research-focused education to Indian students. But perhaps his most celebrated initiative is VidyaGyan.
VidyaGyan is a radical experiment in social mobility. The foundation handpicks gifted, underprivileged students from rural Uttar Pradesh—children of farmers, daily wage labourers, and small shopkeepers—and provides them with a world-class, completely free residential education from Grade 6 to 12. The goal is to nurture future leaders from the most overlooked corners of the country.
This unwavering focus on education as an engine for change is what defines Nadar’s philanthropy. While others diversify their giving across healthcare, disaster relief, and rural transformation—all critical causes—Nadar has maintained a laser-like focus. He believes that to solve a problem as vast as educational disparity, one must commit to it for the long haul.
This commitment is evident in his consistency. His cumulative donations over the past five years alone have crossed the ₹10,122 crore mark.
While Nadar’s generosity is in a category of its own, the report does highlight a growing culture of giving in India. The list identified 191 individuals who donated over ₹5 crore, with a cumulative donation of ₹10,380 crore. It also celebrated other remarkable givers, such as Rohini Nilekani, who remains India’s most generous woman with a donation of ₹204 crore, and Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath, the youngest philanthropist on the list.
But in the contest of sheer scale, Shiv Nadar stands alone. He has shown that true generosity isn’t a competition, but a conviction. By channeling his wealth back into the educational ecosystem that creates opportunity, the HCL founder has cemented a legacy that will likely outlast his business empire—one built not on code, but on classrooms.
(This story was curated with the help of AI tools.)
