Philanthropy and the Jindal Global Law School

Back in December, I had written about Ratan Tata’s multi-million gift to Cornell, thinking about why more South Asian philanthropists aren’t giving such large gifts to top schools in South Asia.

Well, the Jindal Global Law School is a counter-example to the trend of South Asian gajillionaires giving to universities in the United States.  Indian industrialist Naveen Jindal made a gift of more than U.S. $60 million to launch the Jindal Global University, whose first project is a global law school of the highest caliber.

C. Raj Kumar

I had the privilege of hearing C. Raj Kumar, dean of JGLS and vice-chancellor of JGU (and, I must disclose, a friend from Harvard Law School), speak today – and his presentation was inspiring.  His vision is to promote the rule of law in India through the creation of a top-notch law school of a caliber that simply does not exist in India.  And his enthusiasm for that vision is infectious – obviously infectious to more than just me, given the generosity of the Jindal gift!

For South Asians in the U.S. interested in supporting JGLS or JGU, they are setting up a “friends of” nonprofit organization here to cultivate financial and other support and we look forward to bringing you more information eventually.  (“Friends of” organizations are one way of creating nonprofit organizations here in the U.S. that accept tax-deductible charitable contributions and support organizations abroad that meet certain requirements – more on that in a future post, hopefully!)