By now, many are aware that Indians in America have the highest household incomes of any ethnic group. But once they make it big, how do they spend their money? 🧵👇 
In his interview with @RichardHanania, @RealJarTaylor mentioned the top Indian philanthropists in the U.S. Here they are, according to ChatGPT...
Chandrika Tandon was the first Indian woman to make partner at McKinsey. Here she is with Prime Minister Modi in 2023.
In 2015, she gave what was then the largest donation by an Indian in the US: $100 million to the NYU engineering school, which is now named after her.
By 2019 (the most recent year available), the Tandon School of Engineering had 2,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. Very few were white, but plenty were "International" or Asian.
She has also served as a trustee of the American India Foundation, which "sends skilled young Americans in an immersive volunteer service program training and placing young professionals to support development organizations across India."
Romesh Wadhwani (on the right) is the co-founder of Symphony Technology Group, a California-based private equity firm. He met with PM Modi in 2020, 2023, and 2024.
He established the Wadhwani Foundation in 2001 "for economic development in emerging economies, with an initial focus on India."
Today, the Foundation "is positively impacting the lives of millions of individuals across multiple countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America"
Manoj Bhargava, the creator of 5-hour Energy, has pledged 99% of his $4 billion net worth to charity.
He has lately run afoul of the DOJ and IRS and "could face some of the largest tax penalties in U.S. history." More on that here: wsj.com/us-news/law/mo…
His philosophy is "If the government gives me a choice of whether to give my money to a charity and help those in this world who are truly poor, or give it to the government, which is rich, I’m going to give it to the poor."
His charities include The Hans Foundation, which "provides funding support to Not-for-Profit organizations in India," and the Rural India Supporting Trust, which has a "vision of creating an equitable India."
He also founded an LLC called "Billions in Change" with the aim to "develop financing and technologies that could aid in the elimination of world poverty."
It had a plan to give 10,000 electricity-generating bikes to homeowners in India, but the bikes proved inefficient and caught on women's sari garments. Most of its other inventions likewise failed.
But philanthropists aren't the only ones giving to India. The country is the world's top destination for remittances, receiving $120 billion in 2023 — nearly twice the amount sent to Mexico. indiatoday.in/business/story…
Closer to home, Indians have constructed a $96 million Hindu temple — the second-largest in the world — in Robbinsville, New Jersey, of all places...
It's admittedly stunning.
13,000 people are said to have spent 12 years building it, many of them volunteers. But as the NYT reported in 2021:
Per Wikipedia, "The lawsuit alleged that over 200 Indian men, mostly of the Dalit caste, were brought from India to the US and were subject to wage theft, forced labor, and human trafficking."
See here for our video on the temple: rumble.com/v3s2dnq-caste-…
As a final note, Pew reported in August that "Of the country’s six largest Asian origin groups, Indian adults are the most likely to say they typically describe themselves by their ethnicity alone, without the addition of 'American.' "
.pewresearch.org/2024/08/06/ind…
.pewresearch.org/2024/08/06/ind…
"Most say they most often describe themselves as either 'Indian' (41%) or 'Indian American' (21%). Another 10% usually call themselves 'American,' 15% call themselves 'Asian' or 'Asian American,' and 9% say they most often describe their identity as 'South Asian.' "
Indians like to bemoan British colonization, but if colonization is remaking a society in your image and sending resources home, how is the way they behave in the U.S. meaningfully different?
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