

Manoj Bhargava, richest Indian in US commits 90% earnings to charity - azarias
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-04-10/news/31318781_1_charity-work-manoj-bhargava-rs-5k-crore

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comatose_kid
Harsh and cynical comments in this thread.

I'm waiting to hear how much you've committed to give away once you've made
your first million (never mind billion).

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Evbn
Do you think Manoj's first million went to charity, or invested in his
businesses and self?

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elchief
The article actually says he says he will give 90 pct of his money away. This
is not the same as having done so.

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koala0
hm, a little bit about the charity part :
[http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2012/02/08/manoj-
bh...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2012/02/08/manoj-bhargava-the-
mystery-monk-making-billions-with-5-hour-energy/3/)

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arrowgunz
Respect.

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wilfra
He is giving the money to his own charity.

With this guys track record, I wouldn't chalk this up to anything more than a
clever tax-avoidance strategy.

[http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2012/02/08/manoj-
bh...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2012/02/08/manoj-bhargava-the-
mystery-monk-making-billions-with-5-hour-energy/3/)

 _Bhargava claims to have given away $1 billion in 2009, with a letter to
FORBES from his attorney, David Lieberman of the Michigan firm Seyburn Kahn,
to back him up. Tax returns of Bhargava’s U.S. charity, the Rural India
Supporting Trust, suggest a different narrative. Virtually the entire donation
was in the form of a 45% stake in the privately held Living Essentials. Only a
few million dollars was in cash.

Rural India then sold that 45% stake to Nevada 5, a private for-profit
company. In exchange, Rural India got a note worth $623.6 million. Bhargava’s
accountant Paul Edwards of Plante Moran says his client is not a beneficial
owner in Nevada 5—but another one of his associates says it is a vehicle for
Bhargava’s philanthropy and affiliated with Innovation Ventures, the parent
company of Living Essentials.

This kind of deal raises questions, says Roger Colinvaux, professor at
Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law and an expert on tax and
philanthropy. “If it were a private foundation, it would be prohibited from
selling to a company re­lated to a major donor.”

Rural India itself appears not to be giving much away. It lists total grants
paid out in 2010 of just $4 million off a total asset base that by the end of
that year had been stepped up to just over $1 billion. Bhargava can get away
with this because he set up Rural India as something called a supporting
organization, or a group that financially supports other charities. Unlike a
traditional private foundation, a supporting organization has no mandated 5%
minimum outlay, pays no excise taxes on investment income and has fewer self-
dealing restrictions. Bhargava is not doing anything illegal here, just
exploiting a loophole in the tax code many other big philanthropists have used
as well._

~~~
lubos
This is nothing new.

Looking at BMGF (bill gates foundation) annual reports for 2010. Total assets:
$37b. Grants: $2b (barely over 5% minimum mandated by law)

[http://www.gatesfoundation.org/annualreport/Pages/annual-
rep...](http://www.gatesfoundation.org/annualreport/Pages/annual-reports.aspx)

~~~
rauljara
The BMGF operates through endowment, which a lot of organizations do.
Basically, they don't expect many regular small donations (like a lot of
smaller charities do), they expect just a couple of very big ones. Because the
donations don't come every year, they need to last. So they invest the money,
and use the interest for operation costs and grants. This way, they can give
that $2b a year[1], in perpetuity. Another big donation means that they only
give out slightly more per year, but that the donation will basically last
forever.

There may be a better model, but this is a well respected method for making a
big charitable gift last.

[1] more in years when the economy does well. E.g., in 2009 they gave slightly
over $3B.

~~~
wilfra
Giving $2b/yr in perpetuity is definitely not the mission of the Gates
Foundation. They have set it up to run out of money within X years (10 IIRC)
of Bill and Melinda's death.

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est
How is this tech or startup related?

~~~
dangrossman
Submissions need not be tech or startup related --
<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

~~~
eevilspock
_On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes
more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the
answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity._

 _Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're
evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters,
or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-
topic._

Seems off-topic to me.

~~~
nicholassmith
Seems on-topic to me. See how subjective life is?

It concerns someone who is a founder, personal wealth and its relation to
society. That's pretty interesting to a group of people.

