India’s first, largest, biggest and most enduring industrialist and entrepreneurial families, have been chosen for the prestigious honor of ‘Nobel Prize of Philanthropy by the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy department. They were invited to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to receive the award at a mega ceremony. One of India’s most respected businessmen Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Sons, received the medal on behalf of the family in the presence of former president of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

This honor makes the Tata family come on par with the three recipients of this rare honor. The other families who have received the award are the Heinz, the Mellon and Eli Broad families. The Heinz family received it for setting up enormous endowments to promote arts, environment, health and education. Andrew Mellon’s personal collection helped set up the National Gallery of Art and National Portrait Gallery in Washington. Eli Broad, a reputed business leader whose Los Angeles-based Broad Foundation focuses on promoting education, arts and scientific research.

The award, given every two years, was instituted in 2001 in memory of Andrew Carnegie, an American industrialist and philanthropist. It is given to those who have dedicated their private wealth to the public good and who have sustained impressive careers as philanthropists. The award carries a citation and a medal.

This years award citation extolled the Tata family’s commitment to charity. It said that the family gives away eight to 14 percent of the net profits from its companies year after to sustain charitable, research and education projects in science, medicine, social services, performing arts and education.

Funding from them has also established pioneering institutions in social sciences as well as cancer research and treatment. TATA family’s philosophy of “constructive philanthropy” has played a role in changing the traditional concept of charity in the Indian subcontinent, the award citation noted.

Speaking at the awards ceremony after accepting the award, an overwhelmed Ratan Tata said, the family was pleased to have helped improve the world in a small way and would continue its efforts. He pointed out that a great majority of people in India and several other third world countries continue to eke out a living much much below the poverty line. He further exhorted, people with disposable incomes and disproportionate wealth to contribute and build a better world through philanthropy.

It is indeed a great honor, not only for the TATAs but for the country at large because now our industrialists and philanthropists are capable of equaling contributions of the rich and generous elsewhere in the world. In India and several other countries rich continue to have a easy and playful lives. It is high time these guys also got up and helped improve the world.