Ambani couple, Premji among Time's 100 most influential people in philanthropy
New York, May 20 (PTI): Billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani and Nita Ambani, former Wipro chairman Azim Premji and Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath have been named Tuesday by Time magazine in its inaugural list of the 100 most influential people in philanthropy.
The TIME100 Most Influential People in Philanthropy 2025 list “tells the stories of how generous donors and leaders of foundations and non-profits are directing funding into the communities that need it most,” according to the publication.
The list includes Mukesh and Nita Ambani who, Time said, gifted Rs 407 crore (about USD 48 million) in 2024, “placing them among the country’s biggest donors.”
Noting that Mukesh and Nita Ambani are “empowering millions”, the Time profile said the billionaire philanthropist couple’s “charitable initiatives are as varied and wide-ranging as the business empire that earned them an estimated USD 110 billion fortune.”
It listed the initiatives taken by Mukesh and Nita Ambani and added that Nita Ambani, founder and chair of the Reliance Foundation and a businesswoman in her own right, leads a number of the foundation’s programmes.
On tech magnate Premji, Time said that today, he is better known as one of India’s most generous philanthropists, directing his wealth to systematically improving India’s public education system.
Premji was the first Indian to sign the Giving Pledge and in 2013 endowed the foundation he launched nearly 25 years ago with over USD 29 billion in shares from his company, Wipro.
In addition to disbursing traditional grants—USD 109 million went to 940 organisations focused on education, health, and other areas in 2023-2024—the foundation works directly with teachers and rural child care workers via 59 field offices and 263 teacher learning centres throughout India, on educational programmes that have so far helped over 8 million children, Time said.
In August, the foundation also committed around USD 175 million to expand school meal coverage for more than 5 million children—all collectively reflecting Premji’s philosophy, influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, to regard “holding one's wealth in trusteeship, to be used for the betterment of society.”
The list also includes co-founder of Zerodha Nikhil Kamath, who in 2023 at age 36 became the youngest Indian to sign the Giving Pledge. “By then, he had already donated millions to environmental and educational projects—and started his own offshoot initiative, the Young India Philanthropic Pledge (YIPP), which asks Indians under age 45 with fortunes over USD 100 million to commit to giving away at least 25 per cent of their wealth,” Time said.
“It’s a remarkable development for a high school dropout who started working for a Bangalore call centre as a teenager, and using his free time to trade stocks. In 2010, Kamath and his older brother Nithin founded Zerodha, now one of India’s most successful discount brokerages, and within 13 years both had become billionaires,” it added.
“Kamath still likes to invest but he’s increasingly focused on giving his money away. He and Nithin together have committed more than USD 100 million to their Rainmatter Foundation, which focuses on solutions to climate change.”
YIPP has raised USD 8 million to fund projects such as upgrading 300 schools with better computers, career counseling, and other services. Kamath says he wants to improve conventional schools because education “is the only democratising element that can close the inequality gap.”
The list also includes legendary footballer David Beckham, billionaire philanthropist Warren Buffet, American philanthropist Melinda French Gates and Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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