“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.

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“You can take an Indian out of India, but you can never take India out of an Indian”. Indian Diaspora has once again stood up to this. From political heavyweights of America, including Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, to Indian American CEOs and billionaires – everyone has expressed solidarity and support for the COVID-hit India amid #oxygenemergency. After White House declined India’s request for supply of vaccine raw materials, referring to the Biden administration’s ‘responsibility to the American people’ as the first and foremost priority, President Biden agreed to return the favor with COVID aid package to India, following two days of the Indian American community’s mounting pressure on him. In April 2020, India sent a consignment of hydroxychloroquine, an anti malarial drug, to its ally, USA, when the latter was slipping under the grips of the pandemic.

In his urge to the White House, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi wrote, “We are currently sitting on close to 40 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the US stockpile, a stockpile which we’re not using and which we’ve already opened to combat the pandemic in Mexico and Canada. In order to protect public health and our international economy, we need to get these vaccines out the door now. I respectfully, but strongly, call on the Biden administration to release millions of AstraZeneca vaccine doses to the hardest-hit countries, including India, Argentina, and potentially others.”

One of the wealthiest Indian-origin billionaires in America, Vinod Khosla from California offered to help Indian hospitals running short of medical oxygen for COVID patients and pledged a donation of US$10 million for oxygen supply. Saddened by India’s increasing numbers of COVID positive cases in the second wave of the pandemic, Vinod Khosla tweeted,

“I’m willing to fund hospitals in India that need funding to import bulk planeloads of oxygen or supplies into India. The Khosla Family is adding $10 million to @GiveIndia and hoping others will join in this urgent need. There is large and very urgent need and a day’s delay costs lives. One day at one hospital without oxygen had 8 people die gasping for breath.”    

In the same tweet, he asked India’s public hospitals and NGOs to reach out to him for help. In another tweet, he urged President Biden to send the stock of Astra Zeneca vaccines to India. He tweeted, “The AZ vaccine is unlikely to be ever approved in the US given current alternatives here. @Potus should absolutely release all doses since Moderna and Pfizer can supply US needs”. Indian-American Republican Ro Khanna responded to his tweet, emphasizing the urgency of medical help that India needs badly. The US Chamber of Commerce echoed similar sentiments about India struggling to battle the pandemic and called on the President to ship Astra Zeneca vaccine doses to India, Brazil and other countries where the Novel Coronavirus is taking a heavy toll on lives.

With net worth US$ 2.9 billion, Vinod Khosla, along with his wife Neeru, joined the Giving Pledge in 2011 and agreed to give away half of their wealth to charity. Khosla, the founder of Silicon Valley-based Khosla Ventures that invest in robotics, biomedicine and other experimental technologies, is an IIT alumnus from New Delhi. With a degree in engineering from India, he shifted to the US in 1970s and studied masters in biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and pursued MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is on the board of trustee for Blum Center for Developing Economies at the University of California, Berkeley. The Center finds and studies experimental solutions for developing nations to deal with abject poverty.

Born to an officer in the Indian Army, billionaire Vinod Khosla has pledged $600,000 to Wikimedia Foundation headquartered in San Francisco. His wife, Neeru Khosla co-founded CK-12 Foundation, a nonprofit on the mission of providing better access to low-cost K-12 education in America and abroad. NASA and Microsoft teamed up with CK-12 Foundation to produce educational resources in 2010 and 2013 respectively. The American Academy of Achievement honored Vinod Khosla with the Golden Plate Award in 2000.

With India having reported over 3 lakh positive cases daily for the past few days, Indian American CEOs, including Google’s Sundar Pichai and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella offered to help the country, where they were born, with funds and technical expertise.“Devastated to see the worsening COVID crisis”, Sundar Pichai offered to make an aid of INR 1.35 billion from Google and its employees. Satya Nadella tweeted, “Microsoft will continue to use its voice, resources, and technology to aid relief efforts, and support the purchase of critical oxygen concentration devices.”

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“You can take an Indian out of India, but you can never take India out of an Indian”. 2020, the year of the pandemic, saw several Indian Americans including tech moguls and high-paid professionals live by the maxim. Ramesh Bhatia and Kalpana Bhatia, one of the most successful and richest Indian-origin business couples in the USA, donated over US$ 8 million to over 40 nonprofits throughout 2020. Recently, the Texas-based philanthropist duo made a charitable giving worth USD 150,000 towards healthcare efforts in the states of Bihar and Jharkhand. The generous donation to the Bihar Jharkhand Association of North America (BJANA) will help fund its rural health initiative.

The Indian American couple’s non-profit wing, the Ramesh and Kalpana Bhatia Family Foundation, is “dedicated to making an impactful change around the world by funding innovative solutions and programs that enrich the communities and serve the common good.” In 2020 alone, the foundation committed funding to the pandemic-hit communities and organizations in health, education, human rights, social justice, medical research, emergency response, mental health, and women & girls’ empowerment.

A $7-million grant to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas is the biggest donation that the Bhatia Family Foundation has ever pledged till that and the couple’s most impactful initiative of the year 2020. UT Southwestern is the best and largest medical school in the US state of Texas.

The USD 7-million gift includes $5 million for funding the construction of the Neurosciences Tower at William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, a teaching hospital in the Southwestern medical district. The Ramesh and Kalpana Bhatia Family Foundation Hall in the hospital’s new tower is supposed to be open this year.  A university chair in research on brain science will be established with the remaining grant, in honor of the Bhatia Family Foundation.

Apart from funding major institutions, Ramesh Bhatia and Kalpana Bhatia extended their philanthropic arm to the small organizations that remained underfunded during the pandemic. One such organization is Dallas-based Ability Connection that provides shelter to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The Bhatia Family Foundation partnered with Ability Connection and pledged a grant of over $500,000 for the construction of a new residence for the sheltered adults.

CEO of Atco Rubber Products in Dallas, Ramesh Bhatia went on to identify and support the few regional organizations that continued to provide essential services to the needy even during unprecedented times. As part of its response to the pandemic, the Bhatia Foundation donated over $225,000 to the regional organizations, including Communities in Schools in Dallas/Fort Worth, Sakhi for South Asian Women, United Way of Greater Los Angeles, Meals on Wheels Los Angeles, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, and YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles.

In 2020, the Ramesh and Kalpana Bhatia Family Foundation donated $225,000 to Communities in Schools of Greater Tarrant County, which is part of a nationwide dropout prevention network trying to keep 1.3 million students in school till graduation. Among the beneficiaries of the Bhatia Foundation’s pandemic-special charity, Sakhi for South Asian Women is committed to serving survivors of gender violence in South Asian communities. The volunteers of Sakhi for South Asian Women provide technical assistance to the survivors of violence, advocate for the latter’s right to dignity and help them with community outreach.

In September 2020, the Bhatia couple took the pandemic as an opportunity to give back to the local community on the North Texas Giving Day, a one-day online giving event for billionaires and philanthropists. Since 2009, the North Texas Giving Day has been promoting the culture of community giving. The event raised $30,000 from the Bhatia Family Foundation for 30 local nonprofits and small businesses in and around Dallas.

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From serving in the Indian Army for a salary of Rs 450 to making charitable giving worth millions of dollars in the US, Dr. Rajinder Pal Singh Bhalla’s journey is an inspiring tale of American Dreams. A resident of Houston, this 90-year-old Indian American is an active community leader embodying the cultural values of India and the principles of Sikhism in his way of life. The former president of the India Culture Center, Dr. Bhalla is the first to have received the Community Service Award from India House in Houston.

Recently, his joy of giving became the talk of the town as he made headlines for donating US$1 million to several nonprofits in the United States. Reportedly, he and his spouse made a list of nonprofits in and around Texas over the past few months. The India Culture Center, Houston Food bank, Houston Methodist Hospital Foundation, Kennett Education Foundation, Gurudwara Sahib of Southwest Houston, and Sugar Land Legacy Foundation are among the nonprofits on their list.

Picture Credit: India West

In August, Dr. Rajinder Pal Singh Bhalla started calling the nonprofits on his list and surprised the managing director of the Houston Methodist Hospital Foundation when he told her about his plans to donate $50K to the foundation. “At the end of the day, how much money do you need? There comes a time when you realize you have enough,” said Dr. Bhalla.

Though he is not among the richest Indian-origin Americans, Dr. Bhalla believes if there is a will for giving back there is a way. He started pursuing philanthropy before he retired in 2006. The Bhalla couple donated to help set up a chemistry lab where he was schooled in India and sponsored an ICU at a hospital in Ferozepur.

The 16^th direct descendant of the third Sikh Guru, Guru Amar Das, Dr. Bhalla was initiated into serving the mankind when he was in the Indian Army. His father was a captain in the Indian Army Medical Corps. Inspired by his father’s service, he became a veterinarian lieutenant in 1953 after he completed veterinary studies at Punjab Veterinary College.

Dr. Rajinder Pal Singh Bhalla came to the US in 1960 when an opportunity from the Government of India came his way to do masters at the University of Minnesota. He returned home after one year as he was serving in the Army. Smitten by American Dreams in his early 30s, he took voluntary retirement from the Army, went back to the US with his family and settled in Long Island, New York. Raj started working at Charles River Labs in Port Washington, NY while his better half opened an Indian eatery called Paul Bhalla’s Cuisine of India. New York was their home for 10 years.

The philanthropist Bhalla couple pursues philanthropy with equal passion in India where they belong to and the US where they found home away from home. In 1989, they instituted a cash award of Rs. 25,000 and two silver trophies as annual awards in gallantry, equestrian sports, veterinary research, and professional innovation. One of the trophies is awarded to an officer, and the other is presented to a junior commissioned officer.

In 2006, they donated $20,000 to help with relief efforts in the tsunami-hit Indonesia. Dr. Bhalla’s heart missed a beat when a New York Times article about a man having bartered his two kids for bags of wheat not only redefined poverty but also pierced him in 2002. He contacted the New York Times and talked to the writer of the article to know how he could send financial help to the family.

Indian American Dr. Rajinder Pal Singh Bhalla ardently believes in Guru Nanak’s three principles: honest livelihood, sharing with others, and giving back to society. In the aftermath of the Novel Coronavirus pandemic, he donated his fortune to many organizations struggling with depleted resources, including $100,000 to Indian Culture Center Houston; $10,000 to Arya Samaj of Greater Houston; $10,000 to Sewa International; $10,000 to New York Public Radio; $5000 to Indian Film Festival of Houston; $5000 to Ekal Vidyalaya; $25,000 to Kennett Education Foundation; $12,500 to Indian Doctors Club Charitable Foundation; $5000 to Foundation for Indian Studies; $5000 to Hindus of Greater Houston; $5000 to Indian Senior Citizens Association; $7500 to Indian Muslims Association of Greater Houston; $10,000 to Kidney Cancer Coalition Inc.

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Today is the World Humanitarian Day! On the eve of the World Humanitarian Day 2020, Indian-origin philanthropist Raj Asava and Aradhana Asava – the founders of HungerMitao Movement  in the USA – pledged to donate USD1 million to Feeding America, the nationwide network of food banks. “Hunger, whether it’s in India, the US, or anywhere in the world, should not be an issue in this day and age,” the Texas-based Indian American couple believes.

Picture Credit: Pressreader.com

Texas-based Indian American Raj and Aradhana Asava’s HungerMitao Movement is a volunteer-driven campaign in the United States where around 40 million Americans grapple with food insecurity, according to Raj Patel, a professor at the University of Texas, Austin. Launched in 2017, the HungerMitao Movement raises awareness about hunger and fights food insecurity through the Feeding America network across Houston, Atlanta, Seattle and New York City.

In 7 months of the launch of HungerMitao, Raj Asava and Aradhana Asava helped the Feeding America food banks achieve the first milestone of funding one million meals. Currently, HungerMitao is close to funding 20 million meals. HungerMitao conducts food drive campaigns, organizes fundraising events, and involves active volunteering of Indian Americans in its mission. Every year, the HungerMitao volunteers conduct month-long food drives and fund-raising campaigns to commemorate the Indian Independence Day in August.

HungerMitao was born out of a campaign named “Million Meals March” that Raj Asava and Aradhana Asava had launched for the North Texas Food Bank on learning about the schoolchildren‘s suffering from hunger and homelessness on weekends. In an event, the mayor of Plano, Texas walked Raj Asava through the North Texas Food Bank’s hunger-eradicating initiatives for the poor schoolchildren.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, Texas ranks 17 on the index of food insecurity in the United States. A 2016 study based on the federal government data reveals that nearly four million people, including one if every 4 children, were suffering from hunger pangs in Texas. “Hunger has long been a serious and largely unspoken problem in the US for decades,” said Indian American Professor Raj Patel.

Raj and Aradhana Asava, who retired from corporate jobs, co-founded the Indian American Council (IMC) at North Texas Food Bank, aiming to involve Indian community members in their humanitarian efforts. As Raj and Aradhana do always lead by example, they were the first to contribute $100,000 to the hunger removal campaign. Their HungerMitao Movement bridges the gap between those craving the joy of giving and those who need help.

“We will never be able to eradicate hunger. But as human beings, it is our duty to ensure that no one goes hungry,” Aradhana Asava said. The HungerMitao Movement founders are looking to expand their work to Central Texas, New Jersey, Connecticut and Alameda as they believe, “Give where you live.”

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Philanthropy and humanitarianism knows no geographical boundaries. Bearing a testimony to it, Indian-origin celebrity chef Vikas Khanna has extended a helping hand from New York to the poor victims of COVID19 in India. In solidarity with India, he generously responded to the acute shortage of food that orphanages and old age homes are grappling with amid the countrywide lockdown. The way he created a chain of help for the needy and the affected over a few days after he got duped is remarkable as well as admirable.

Picture Credit (left): Hotelier Middle East

Born in Amritsar, Chef Vikas Khanna is known for his benevolent attitude, compassionate nature, and down-to-earth personality. Recently, he made a cash donation to an old age home in India when someone approached him for help. He got to know later that he was cheated. Following the case of fraudulence, he realized that he needs to shoulder the responsibility with the help of reliable people in different parts of India.

The goodwill ambassador of Smile Foundation, Michelin star chef Vikas Khanna has provided more than 100 quintals of dry ration for over 3 million meals to the needy both in urban and rural India. The dry ration was distributed with the help of National Disaster Response Force. Not only dry ration, but he also donated PPE kits, masks and sanitary napkins for some health care workers. Legendary Lata Mangeshkar expressed gratitude for his donation of 1000 PPE kits to Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital in Mumbai.

Despite a complete halt to his restaurant business amid the COVID19 pandemic in New York and other cities, he came forward to help those in utter need of food. Despite he lost some of his friends and acquaintances in New York to the COVID19 health crisis, he did not let his mental equilibrium run into a mess. He is striving to stay positive even in the unprecedented situation so that he can continue the philanthropic effort. A close aunt of his is among those who succumbed to the pandemic.

“New York’s hottest Chef” Vikas Khanna directly approached his social media followers to check on orphanages and old age homes seeking help to survive the lockdown in their cities, towns and villages. He himself verified the credentials of the listed nonprofit entities to avoid giving away dry food essentials to those who don’t need it. He also ensured the inclusion of NGOs and individuals feeding the poor in the dry ration distribution network. There are leprosy centers on the list of bonafide foundations shortlisted for the drive.

By the beginning of the week we will cross over 3 Million+ sharing of Dry Rations Meals in over 75+ Cities in India.
Today I request info on Leprosy Centres, Old-Age Homes and Orphanages in #Hyderabad #Kolkata #Bangalore #Chennai
We are getting stronger and better in solidarity pic.twitter.com/hbqeeYbZAW

— Vikas Khanna (@TheVikasKhanna) May 8, 2020

A renowned cookbook author with 25 titles to his credit, Chef Vikas Khanna is a philanthropic entrepreneur. He has cooked for several fundraising events, including the one hosted for former President Obama at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City. He founded India’s first culinary museum at his alma mater in Manipal, Karnataka. In 2001, he founded Cooking for Life in association with chefs from across the world, aiming to support various social causes. Vision of Palate is another award-winning initiative by him for people with visual disabilities to develop such sensibilities as taste, flavor and aromas.

Travel Beats is an overseas Indian Community Portal by Indian Eagle, a leading travel booking partner of NRIs and OCIs. This story is part of our continued effort to promote philanthropy by Indians in USA. Subscribe to Travel Beats’ free newsletter for latest US immigration and visa news, Indian Diaspora news, inspiring stories of young Indians, and international travel updates.

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Latest Update: Workday’s CEO Aneel Bhusri, one of the richest Indian Americans, has generously donated $1 million towards the fight against COVID19 in California. The donation to the Give2SF fund that was instituted in March 2020 will be utilized to help small businesses in San Francisco hit by the Novel Coronavirus pandemic.

Indian Americans are not only pushing the vehicles of innovation in the United States and fueling the US’ economic growth but also contributing generously to several social welfare programs. In the history of America, there are many individuals and couples of Indian origin who have donated millions of dollars to their alma maters. Among them are Florida-based Dr. Kiran Patel and Dr. Pallavi Patel who featured in our series of inspiring stories of philanthropy for donating $171,500 to build affordable homes for the needy and $200 million to Nova Southeastern University for health care development.

Indian American entrepreneur Aneel Bhusri is the latest talk of the town at Travel Beats, a leading Indian community portal by Indian Eagle. The cofounder and CEO of Workday Inc., Aneel Bhusri recently announced to join the Giving Pledge and donate more than half of his wealth to various noble causes. His business partner, Allison Bhusri made the same commitment. With a net worth of $2.2 billion in 2019, San Francisco-based Aneel Bhusri is one of the 10 wealthiest Indian American billionaires, according to Forbes Magazine.

Instituted by Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett in 2010, the Giving Pledge is a leading group of nearly 200 philanthropists from 22 countries including India and the United States. There are 40 from the US alone. Workday Inc. CEO Aneel Bhusri and cofounder Allison Bhusri are among the 14 new signatories, including Rohini and Nandan Nilekani of India.

Born in New York, Aneel Bhusri is an alumnus of Stanford University and Brown University. He is an enterprise software professional and investor too. On completion of MBA, he started his career as a corporate finance analyst at Morgan Stanley. In 1993, he was employed as director of planning at PeopleSoft, a software company and became vice chairman for product strategy & marketing by the time Oracle acquired it in 2004.

A resident of San Francisco, Aneel Bhusri has been an advisory partner at Greylock since 1999. Greylock is a leading venture capital company known for funding such world-class conglomerates as Facebook, Tumblr, Dropbox, Groupon and Airbnb. He also serves on the board of several companies which Greylock has made investment in so far, other than being a member on the board of directors at Intel.

Among the American billionaires of Indian origin, Aneel Bhusri is said to be a down-to-earth, employee-centric, savvy businessman who believes in pay parity at workplace and the power of mentoring young people. In 2016, he signed the White House Equal Pay Pledge and committed to ensure pay parity at Workday. He connects with the young workforce at Workday and motivates them to achieve their own professional growth as well as the company’s goals.

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Ram and Meenu Gupta from Boston, is all set to ring in the New Year 2020 with a gift for the visually impaired in India. The Indian American couple came forward to fund a national resource center for the visually challenged in and around New Delhi. The new Indian center of the US-based Vision Aid, a nonprofit organization in Massachusetts, will start in January 2020.

Dedicated to the memory of Ram Gupta’s late father, Lachhman Das Gupta, the New Delhi center of Vision Aid will not only treat the visually impaired, but also educate and empower them for a better life. The Indian American Gupta family owes their philanthropic commitments to late Lachhman Das Gupta, who breathed his last this year.

Picture Credit: Vision-Aid Facebook

The root of Ram and Meenu Gupta’s philanthropic mission in India is Lachhman Das Gupta’s loss of eyesight. He was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa when he was 30. He almost lost his eyesight and became blind of both eyes by the age of 50. However, he never turned blind to his social responsibilities and civic duties. He was always on his toes to help others out with knowledge, experience and intuition. His empathetic outlook to people around him was his third eye.

The way late Lachhman Das Gupta run a high school, managed a temple trust, raised funds for a charitable dispensary, and maintained dharamshalas in India had nothing to do with his loss of eyesight. His vision was his life’s driving force. In memory of late Lachhman Das Gupta, Ram and Meenu are looking to found a trust in order to continue supporting the charities and furthering the causes for tens of years down the lane.

The Gupta family-funded center of Vision Aid in Delhi will act as a vision rehabilitation center for underserved communities. It is said to offer an array of meticulously designed programs for children and adults affected by terminal vision impairment. There is more to what the new national resource center of Vision Aid will offer starting in January 2020.

In compliance with the mission of Massachusetts-based Vision Aid – that is to enable persons with vision disabilities live independently – the New Delhi center will offer skills-based training programs and impart lessons on spoken English to the visually impaired adults, depending on their individual needs and specific circumstances. Computer-based training in mobile technologies is also among the programs for empowering them. Those with complete blindness will be provided assistive devices and gadgets to help reduce their dependence on others.

Meenu and Ram Gupta were introduced to the vision and mission of Massachusetts’ Vision Aid by Puran Dang and one of their family friends. Chairman of Vision Aid, Puran Dang lauded the Gupta couple’s generous support for a new resource center in Delhi, India. Citing references to their long family history of giving back, he described them as a shining example of benevolence and philanthropy.

Founded by Ramakrishna M. Raju and his wife Revathy Ramakrishna in 2004, Vision-Aid has journeyed from Boston to India. Currently, Vision-Aid’s rehabilitation centers include Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Agra, Mangalore, Vizag (Andhra Pradesh), Madurai, Gujarat and Aligarh.

This inspiring news about giving back to India is part of our continued effort to promote good deeds of Indian Americans, at Travel Beats, a leading community portal for Indians in the US and a subsidiary of Indian Eagle. Indian Eagle not only strives to offer the cheapest fare deals for flights to India from USA but also caters inspiring community stories, visa & immigration news, and international travel alerts through free newsletters.

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Indian Americans have gradually been redefining the desi perception of charity, which is donating to temples or religious entities and giving alms to beggars. However, the available reports on overseas Indians’ charitable giving do not speak highly of Indian Americans’ giving habits. One of the highest-earning ethnic groups in the United States, the Indian American community donates about USD 1 billion a year, whereas they have the potential of giving back $3 billion a year.

The survey released at the Indiaspora Philanthropy Summit at Georgetown University in 2018 concludes that Indian Americans donate a max 1.5% of their annual income, which is almost one-third of the average American donation. Indian Americans prolifically volunteer their time for diverse causes, which is almost double the US national average of volunteering hours; but they are not among the leaders in charitable giving, according to the survey.

However, brushing aside the debate on Indian Americans’ giving potential is their promising emergence into philanthropy in education and healthcare. In a recent instance of the increasing awareness about the social impact they could do with their more generous giving habits, an Indian American family has donated a whopping $5 million to fund research and education on heart health.

Picture Credit: Sbisteel.com/news

Indian American Satish Gupta’s Gupta Agarwal Charitable Foundation made the donation to the Texas-based Baylor Scott & White Heart Hospital’s research facility in Plano, aiming to help further the research on cardiac conditions. Headquartered in Dallas, Baylor Scott & White Heart Hospital is known worldwide for its topnotch cardiac care facility where the Satish and Yasmin Gupta Heart Center has recently been unveiled.

Dallas-based Yasmin and Satish Gupta, the founders of the Gupta Agarwal Charitable Foundation, are driven by their sheer commitments to improving access to knowledge and education for the welfare of communities, both local and global, through continuous research on heart health and others.

The impact of the Gupta Agarwal Charitable Foundation’s donation to Baylor Scott & White Health is not limited to Texas or the US at large; it is rather extended to physicians from all over the world. The fund will facilitate access to the world-class care provided at Baylor Scott & White Health’s Heart Hospital in Plano for physicians from other countries. They will also be allowed to get trained in the latest medical developments and take the knowledge home to better healthcare facilities in their countries.

In addition to knowledge dissemination on the best heart health care for millions of cardiac patients worldwide, the Gupta Agarwal Charitable Foundation’s gift to Baylor Scott & White Health will fund implementation of new therapies.

The founder of SB International, steel baron Satish Gupta’s commitment to improving heart health care for millions of people is a very personal one. With a degree in Economics from Chennai, he came to the US in 1979 and studied MBA in International Trade & Management at the University of Dallas. In 1981, he set up his first steel export business. When he was grappling with challenges to cement the foundation of the business, his father needed a cardiac bypass surgery in India. Somehow he managed to bring his father to Texas for better cardiac treatment. In 2003, Satish Gupta himself noticed his cardiac symptoms and took a therapeutic approach to improve his heart health, consulting the best physicians at Baylor Scott & White Health in Dallas.

Also Check: Billionaire Cardiologist Dr. Kiran Patel Invests Millions to Save Hearts

The Gupta family will helm the utilization of the $5-million donation. Satish Gupta’s daughter Samantha Gupta Parmar, a healthcare professional, will help the newly created committee to direct the gift to achieve the goals. Moreover, Satish and Yasmin Gupta will help further the mission with their business acumen and philanthropic commitment. “Anything you give should snowball to something bigger, and our gift to Baylor Scott & White Health is a global initiative to impact lives positively,” said Yasmin Gupta in a press release.

The Satish and Yasmin Gupta College of Business, a 45,000-sq-ft world-class academic building at the University of Dallas, was inaugurated in 2016, and it is a testimony to the Indian American Gupta family’s passion for community welfare.

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The United States has seen both the worst of crimes against humanity (mass shootings) and the best of philanthropy in 2018. While the US government shutdown (partial) over President Trump’s border wall has drawn the global attention to the nation’s political doldrums, a handful of philanthropists and humanitarians have unaffectedly been working for community welfare in the country. Among them is Dr. Kiran Patel, one of the Indian-origin billionaires in USA and a recipient of the Outstanding American by Choice Award 2017.

Dr. Kiran Patel, a Tampa-based entrepreneur cum philanthropist, has recently broken ground for a state-of-the-art charter school in Florida. The upcoming school for tuition-free education to students is expected to cost $20 million to the Drs. Kiran Patel and Pallavi Patel Family Foundation. A staunch advocate of quality health care and education, Dr. Kiran Patel and his Ahmadabad-born wife, Dr. Pallavi Patel have allocated $20 million for the tuition-free school, in continuation to their pledge to donate a quarter billion dollar for various charities.

Expected to open in August 2019, the Dr. Kiran C. Patel High School for tuition-free education is planned to be a 60,000-square-foot edifice on a 32-acre plot near the University of South Florida. The infrastructure of the charter school infrastructure will have facilities like an 11,000-square-foot gymnasium. A charter school is an independent institution, much like a private school, but it provided free education.

The upcoming Dr. Kiran C. Patel High School in Hillsborough County, Florida will admit 300 students in two batches: one for the 9^th grade and the other for the 10^th grade. The school’s students-enrolling capacity will be enhanced up to a total of 600 students in the third year. Though external students (those from outside Hillsborough County) can seek admission to the school, the students residing in the county may get preference, according to Indian American Ash Bagdy, who hit upon the idea of the school.

The Dr. Kiran C. Patel High School in Hillsborough County will be unlike a traditional school where kids receive passive lessons. Kavita Jain, the school board president and a long-time friend of the Patels, said that the school curriculum would be strategically designed so as to create future leaders with the attributes such as problem-solving attitude, entrepreneurship, creativity, and agility that tech giants like Google, Apple and Microsoft will be looking for in potential employees.

Project-based learning, transformative education and collaborative learning environment are the mainstay of Dr. Kiran C. Patel High School where students living below poverty line will be benefitted. Community leaders and business tycoons will be invited to mentor students at the Dr. Kiran C. Patel High School in Temple Terrace, Florida.

In September 2017, Indian-origin Dr. Kiran Patel pledged a donation of $200 million to Florida’s Nova Southeastern University for medical facility development at the university’s Clearwater campus in Tampa Bay and large-scale healthcare advancement in Florida. It was lauded as the single largest donation to a US institute in the history of America. A key condition of Dr. Kiran Patel’s $200-million commitment to Nova Southwestern University is that 40% of medical graduates will be practicing in medically underserved areas across the globe.

This news story is brought to you by Indian Eagle Travel at its overseas Indian community portal, Travel Beats, as part of the continued effort to promote good work by Indians in USA. Indian Eagle not only strives to make air travel to India cheaper but also caters inspiring community stories, visa & immigration news, and international travel alerts through free newsletters.

The post Indian American Billionaire Philanthropist Dr. Kiran Patel Funds $20-million High School for Free Education appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.