Art of giving and our economic aspirations: To be world class, India’s top education institutions need its wealthy to donate generously

Source-The post is based on the article “Art of giving and our economic aspirations: To be world class, India’s top education institutions need its wealthy to donate generously” published in The Times of India on 19th September 2022.

Syllabus: GS2- Issues related with management and development of education.

Relevance – Higher education

News-This article explains the need for increasing charitable donations to the education sector.

What is the present scenario of philanthropy in India?

Cumulative donations in India have grown sixfold to 14750 crores in five years.

Education is the most favoured sector. It received a donation of 9659 crores.

USA case-Charitable donation was 263 times as compared to India. But its GDP is only 7.2 times of the Indian GDP.

Why is there a need for increasing donations to the Education sector?

The recent budget allocation for IITs was $1.06 billion.

In comparison to IITs, the expenditure of each of the top 30 Chinese universities was in excess of $1 billion for each.MIT’s annual revenue was $3.9 billion in 2021.

What IITs and other institutes need to get professional about fund-raising?

There is a need for a dedicated alumni office. It has to be staffed by professionals with fund-raising skills

There is a need for building alumni and donor databases, conducting market surveys and programmes. It is required to approach potential donors through sustained campaigns.

What is the case of IIT Bombay?

IT has established a well-staffed alumni office. The office is charged with engaging the alumni community and donors. Recently IIT Bombay heritage foundation raised over 400 crores from donors. This has to be replicated in other Indian institutions as well.