Giving Compass' Take:

• BBC News shares possible explanations for the comparatively low giving of India's rich and what that means for the continent. 

• How can funders work to encourage others to give more? Are you giving the right amount of your money? 

• Read the India philanthropy report 2019. 

Indian IT billionaire Azim Premji recently became India's top philanthropist, sealing his place among the world's top givers. But his generosity has put philanthropy in the spotlight in a country where charity does not appear to match wealth. The BBC's Aparna Alluri reports.

With his recent pledge of $7.5bn, Mr Premji's total philanthropic contribution now stands at some 1.45tn rupees ($21bn; £15.8bn). This puts him in the same league of givers - as philanthropists are called - as Bill and Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffet.

What perhaps distinguishes him even more is that, unlike them, he is not one of the world's five richest people - the Bloomberg Billionaires Index ranks him at 51.

But the philanthropic world was not surprised at his new status.

"This is not unusual for him because he's been the largest contributor in India and, even the continent, for some time," says Deval Sanghavi, co-founder of Dasra, a strategic philanthropy firm. It works with some of the biggest donors in India, directing their money to various causes and non-profits.

In their universe, Mr Premji is a magnanimous "outlier".

The 73-year-old software tycoon has been giving his wealth away for a long time. In 2013, he became the first Indian billionaire to sign the Giving Pledge, an initiative by Mr Gates and Mr Buffet that encourages wealthy individuals to pledge half their fortunes to philanthropy.

"There is a great fear of the taxman," says Ingrid Srinath, director of the Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy at Delhi's Ashoka University.

"They [the rich] don't want to end up on any radar or become the subject of more appeals for money."

She believes another reason could be that wealth in India is still only one generation old, and those who have it don't feel secure enough to give it away.

But Ms Srinath also cautions against wholly relying on the data as it is incomplete, making it "hard to say anything definitive about philanthropy in India".

Read the full article about the giving habits of India's rich at BBC News.