When billionaires open their wallet
So you thought it was easy being a billionaire? Wads of cash stacked around various corners of the multi-storeyed mansion, months of vacationing in St. Tropez and Hamptons and a private jet to scoot around the world? Apparently, not at all, when the prerequisites of joining the B-club are being re-written by the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, who recently gave away half their riches for charity.
While there have always been acts of generosity emerging from home-grown billionaires and millionaires, it is a known fact that the international counterparts have always been more active when it comes to widening their wallets.
Umesh Sinha, a media professional, says that those in India end up doing a lot for charity due to our complex taxation structure. “After a certain cap, say `50 crores, people generally deem it better to give their wealth for charity and get a rebate on tax. So even if they don’t feel for a cause, they end up doing charity anyway,” he says.
Charity however should not be turned into an obligation, as Masters student Harsh Vardhan Sahni explains, “Philanthropy is a personal initiative that can be socially encouraged but not necessitated. That’s the reason government has tax incentives and there’s something called Corporate Social Responsibility,” he says.
Even though any charity is good charity, it has become a norm for many to publicise even the tiniest of good deeds, while the real do-gooders would rather have it go unnoticed. Managing director for Assotech, Sanjeev Srivastav, says that these men have reached a certain stage in their lives where their charitable acts cannot be used as a parameter for all. “When you do something good, it shouldn’t be known to the whole world,” he says.
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