It’s not just alumni who’re donating to educational institutions in India — large corporations have also gotten into the act.
Wealth management and stock broking firm Motilal Oswal has donated Rs. 130 crore to IIT Bombay. This is one of the largest corporate donations to an educational institutions in India. The donation is a part of Rs. 400 crore that Motilal Oswal has pledged towards philanthropic initiatives.
Motilal Oswal’s donation will be used to set up the Motilal Oswal Knowledge Centre at the institute. This state-of-the-art academic facility, spanning around 1-1.2 lakh sq. ft., will be 10 stories tall, and will house advanced laboratories, research centres, and collaborative spaces.
The donation will also be used for creating the Motilal Oswal Centre for Capital Markets (MOCM). This multidisciplinary centre will draw from fields like finance, economics, management, computer science, and artificial intelligence to develop high-end capabilities for the evolving Indian financial sector. MOCM will offer a range of academic programmes for undergraduate, postgraduate, and professional learners, with a focus on real-world data and industry integration. Online post-graduate diplomas will be available, making it accessible to professionals globally.
“This generous donation will help us modernise and advance our infrastructure, essential for fostering ground-breaking research,” said IIT Bombay Director Prof. Shireesh Kedare. “The Motilal Oswal Knowledge Centre and Centre for Capital Markets stand as a testament to the power of strategic philanthropy,” said Motilal Oswal, the Trustee of the Motilal Oswal foundation.
IIT Bombay is no stranger to receiving generous donations. Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani has thus far donated Rs. 400 crore to the institution, his alma mater. Last year, IIT Bombay had received Rs. 160 crore from an alumnus who wished to remain anonymous. Other institutions have also benefitted from the largesse of their alumni — Indigo’s Rakesh Gangwal has donated Rs. 100 crore to IIT Kanpur, Happiest Minds’ Ashok Soota has donated Rs. 20 crore to IIT Roorkee, and Reckitt’s Rakesh Kapoor has donated Rs. 10 crore to BITS Pilani.
But businessmen donating to established educational institutions is a relatively new phenomenon in India. Neither Motilal Oswal nor his cofounder Ramdeo Agarwal attended IIT Bombay, but were CAs who began their broking business in the city. They’ve now decided to help build IIT Bombay’s infrastructure and set up a new financial center in the campus. This could be a precedent for other corporations to follow — these companies not only have the deep pockets required to make a difference in India’s education space, but also have the on-ground experience to know which skillsets are demand in the job markets. In the US, the top universities have multibillion-dollar endowments which enable them to carry out world-class research and other activities — if Indian alumni and corporations can step up and donate to top institutions, they can help Indian universities have access to the resources that’ll enable them to compete with the best in the world.