beyondbrics

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have passed the China test, or at least endured it. On Wednesday they held a dinner to talk philanthropy with Chinese billionaires – and, in spite of unwillingness to participate in a shake-down, around 50 attendees turned up and some made “very generous” donations.

Suitably encouraged, the do-gooding duo has repeated its next stop – India. The number of dollar millionaires there grew by 50 per cent last year, according to one new wealth report, while Forbes’s  the top 100 Indians are as almost rich as the top 400 Chinese. So will Gates and Buffett have it easy?

The 2010 Asia Wealth Report, produced by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch, estimate the number of high net-worth (those with more than US$1m in investable assets) Indians at 127,000 last year, with total wealth of $477bn. That compares to 477,000 Chinese who control some $2,347bn.

But, for Gates and Buffett, what’s intriguing is how concentrated Indian wealth is: the 100 richest Indians hold $300bn, compared to $314bn held by the top 400 Chinese, according to Forbes’s new figures. So a few deluxe dinners and a few elbows in the ribs might go a long way.

According to the consultancy Bain, India already gives more than China to charitable causes – 0.6 per cent of GDP, compared to 0.1 per cent. But the super-rich donate a smaller proportion of their wealth to charity than those slightly lower on the income scale.

One problem, Bain’s Arpan Sheth said earlier this year, is that very rich Indians are reluctant to donate wealth which is so recent and therefore does not necessarily seem permanent. Indeed, the Asia Wealth Report attributes the rise in rich individuals in part to gains in India’s stock market, which may or may not be here to stay.

Even so, the scale of India’s poverty suggests that the super-rich may be prepared to dig deep. Moreover, although historically much Indian giving has been channelled through the government, the growing belief that the state doesn’t know best (see the Commonwealth Games fiasco) may add to the argument for philanthropy.

Before long, India and China may even have home-grown versions of Gates and Buffett, true-believers who convert their peers. And there’s a stage beyond that: when Chinese and Indian billionaires donate not just to domestic causes, but further afield, to Africa and elsewhere in Asia.

The celebrity of Gates and Buffett may be the best way of accelerating that process.

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Warren Buffett: building your dreams in Shenzhen, beyondbrics