VIRTUOUS CAPITAL

Modern philanthropy has its share of charitable billionaires, but professionals are rewriting the gospels of giving by thinking differently about how wealth and expertise can solve social problems

- DIVYA J SHEKHAR

Amit Chandra wanted to feed 70,000 people in three days. It was early in April, the central government had imposed its first lockdown to combat Covid-19, and the Maharashtra government was blindsided. The local public distribution systems in Mumbai could not immediately deliver food and essential grocery supplies to marginalised people living in densely populated slums that were turning into coronavirus hotspots. Chandra, 52, realised that if people did not get food on time, the situation could snowball into a humanitarian crisis.

His team at the ATE Chandra Foundation, which usually works on capacity building of non-profits and rural development programmes, found itself in unknown territory when it came to food relief distribution. “But we had to learn, so we did,” says Chandra, who is managing director of Bain Capital Private Equity, India.

The pandemic had overturned all that they knew about working in the social sector. Chandra and team reached out to other local non-profits like the Praja Foundation that had the experience to build a supply chain that would deliver food to the poor. Chandra, who had started looking beyond corporate boardrooms into the development sector almost two decades ago, understood from experience that a good philanthropist knows when to stick to practices like returns on investment, documentation and diligence, and when to let go of them for the greater good. The problem needed to be solved today, there was no time to waste, and so the only way out was to trust each other.