4 Indian women among Forbes Asian 'Heroes Of Philanthropy'

(Credit: IANS) Four Indian women corporate leaders have made it to the Forbes' list of Asia Pacific's 48 "Heroes Of Philanthropy".The Indians featured on the list of the region's most prominent altruists, compiled by Forbes Asia magazine, were biotech major Biocon's CEO Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Anu Aga of Thermax, Kiran Nadar, wife of HCL Technologies co-founder Shiv Nadar, and Rohini Nilekani, wife of IT major Infosys' co-founder Nandan Nilekani.

Nilekani, who supports many NGO activities, has featured in the list for the second consecutive year. "Rohini has donated $40 million over the years to supporting causes such as education, microfinance, health care and environment," Forbes said.

The leaders were selected on the basis of their contribution to causes like disaster relief, education, health, culture and sciences.

Last year, the list included telecom czar Sunil Mittal, NRI businessman Anil Agarwal and HCL Technologies Chairman Shiv Nadar. Four each were chosen from 12 markets in the region - Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

"These aren't always the biggest givers," John Koppisch, associate editor of Forbes Asia, said. "Instead we aim to highlight a varied group of generous people, some holdovers from last year but mostly..."

One of the high-profile givers this year was Hollywood actor Jackie Chan, who has donated $730,000 to the United Nations and the families of eight Chinese peace-makers, who died in Haiti earthquake.

Among others on the list were Rupert Murdoch's mother Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, Chen Shu-Chu, a vegetable vendor from Taiwan, Peter Gautschi of HongKong, Ruby Khong of Malaysia, and Japan's Soichiro Fukutake.