“The United States has a long history of diaspora groups giving back to their countries of origin. But compared to many immigrant groups, Indian Americans’ power of giving back is rapidly evolving,” according to a report on philanthropy that The Bridgespan Group, an international non-profit advisory organization, published in 2015. Bearing a testimony to the report the next year, Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayanan from the US Silicon Valley donated $1 million to their alma mater, IIT Madras, establishing the Visiting Chair program in Computer and Engineering.
The momentum of giving back to the country of origin continues through 2022, as Indian American Uma Devi Gavini, an immunologist in the USA, has recently pledged to donate her life’s savings to fund the construction of a mother and child care unit at her alma mater, Guntur Medical College in Andhra Pradesh. She will donate INR 20 crore towards setting up a new bloc for the 600-bed mother and child care unit that the Guntur Medical College Alumni Association of North America (GMCANA) has promised to their people back home.
On completion of her MBBS at Guntur Medical College in 1965, Doctor Uma Devi had immigrated to the US for higher studies. Since then, the US has been her second home. However, she did not let the dust of time build up on her roots in her first home. Pledging her life’s savings to Guntur Medical College is not her first-time philanthropic contribution. As an active member of GMCANA in Dallas, Texas, she has helped in establishing several healthcare facilities in Guntur district.
She is too humble to have the upcoming mother and child care unit named after her, though GMCANA’s chief coordinator Bala Bhaskar and other members proposed to bestow this honor on her. On being insisted, she agreed to name the soon-to-be-constructed building after her late husband, Doctor Kanuri Ramachandra Rao. The new facility will also have 30 classrooms and an assembly hall. Inspired by her exemplary commitment to giving back, many Telugu-speaking NRIs have come forward to fund the project that will cost nearly INR 87 crore, as per reports.
In the pre-pandemic times, an Indian American couple – Prasanth and Anuradha Palakurthi – set a benchmark for overseas Indians by donating USD 1 million to their alma mater, BITS Pilani, for setting up a research endowment fund for scholars. A historic milestone was recorded in the history of diaspora philanthropy when a group of Indian-origin leaders formed the American India Foundation and raised funds for the victims of the Gujarat Earthquake in 2001.
