The Associated Press reports that Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro, will donate 213 million shares of stock, estimated to be worth 88.4 billion rupees, or $1.95 billion, to the Azim Premji Foundation by December 7, 2010, making it the largest one-time donation in modern history. The funds will finance education programs for the country’s poorest children, in hopes of allowing them to make a better life.

Arpan Sheth, a partner at Bain & Company, who is an expert in Indian charity, said that the contribution proved that the rich could have a major impact on the lives of the most disadvantaged citizens.

“This is a seminal event and a great signal to India as a whole that there are things you can do with your wealth other than pass it on to your heirs,” Sheth said in an interview with the AP.

Premji made other headlines after he was among a select group of Indian dignitaries to host the President of the United States on a recent visit. The Times of India reports that other guests included Narayana Murthy, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Javed Akhtar, Kapil Sibal, Vishwanathan Anand and P. Chidambram.

Jerry Hirsch was recognized by the magazine as one of the top 25 most effective philanthropists of 2010. The second annual list, which was created with the help of the Global Philanthropy Group, sought to find out which people had had the biggest impact with the money they had donated. Among the factors taken into account were “innovation, quality of alliances and positive effects of giving.”

“To be acknowledged by Barron’s as an influencer in the field of philanthropy is an exciting validation of the work that we do at Lodestar,” said Hirsch. “Our team is passionate about encouraging nonprofit collaboration as a means for organizations to achieve greater impact, and I’m honored to be recognized for our collective efforts.”

This is hardly the first time Hirsch has been recognized for his giving. In 2008 he was given the Social Venture Partners Award for commitment to charity.

Carlos Slim, whose net worth is over $50 billion, spoke to a crowd of more than 1,000 business people in order to emphasize how important it is for corporations to donate to charitable causes, even if it means an added expense, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Slim said that being profitable and giving money to worthy causes go hand-in-hand and advised those in attendance to make it a priority.

“You’ve got to combine both things,” Slim said during one of the many events at Tijuana Innovadora, the news source reports. “An organization must be efficient, competitive, innovative. But companies must also donate to charities to solve problems that are not profitable, that are not part of the business.”

Slim made other philanthropy-related headlines recently when he criticized the way in which fellow billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have given away their money. In an interview with Forbes magazine, Slim said that donating one’s own wealth was “an interesting idea… but it won’t solve any problems.”

India’s Tata Group, which owns 28 companies and is worth $80 billion, became the largest international donor to Harvard Business School in its 102-year history. The money will go toward building a new campus for students in the Executive Education program, as well as a residential building called Tata Hall.

The president of the company has good reason to make HBS the recipient of such a large gift – he was a student there. He attended the school in 1975 and was awarded the Alumni Achievement Award in 1995.
“The Harvard Business School is the preeminent place to be exposed to the world’s best thinking on management and leadership, and we are pleased that this gift will support the school’s educational mission to mold the next generation of global business leaders,” said Mr. Tata.

Business philanthropy can be a great way to show leadership to industry colleagues. It not only goes to help an organization that may be in need of funds, but it can also raise the contributor’s profile worldwide.

However, initial results of the government investigation prove this otherwise. No new causes for accidents have been found by the DOT. Investigators from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have also found that out of 58 accidents this year related to the Toyota case, 35 of them had not used brakes. The vehicles’ black boxes revealed that the accelerators were in fact depressed moments before the crash. 14 of them lightly stepped on the brakes. Only one case was registered to be caused by the accelerator getting stuck on the floor carpeting. These findings suggest that human error (speeding, delayed braking) is more likely the cause of Toyota-involved accidents.

DOT spokeswoman Olivia Alair said that this is only a fraction of the investigations to be conducted. NASA and the National Academy of Science will later present their findings on possible throttle malfunctions in the fall.

Avista Capital Partners was assigned to sponsor 100% of the venture’s expenditures worth $71.5 million for a period of 8 to 12 months, while Carrizo – an expert in exploring, developing, exploiting and producing natural gas and oil – was in charge of the venture’s properties as well as land, accounting and geotechnical support.

Robert L. Cabes, a partner at Avista, said that the company was pleased to work with Carrizo in the Marcellus Shale effort. Due to Carrizo’s expertise, the company became the ideal operating collaborator for Avista Capital Partners.

Cabes further stated that the partnership is an excellent way of looking at how the venture can grow successfully in the next years.

Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc focuses on the development, exploration and production of natural gas and oil in North Texas’ Barnett Shale and along the regions of Texas and Louisiana’s gulf coasts.

Avista’s main aim is to work in partnership with management teams that excel. The company invests in well-positioned businesses.

China’s currency had been pegged at a permanent exchange rate with the US dollar in the last two years. This arrangement had the Chinese yuan undervalued at 25-40%, making the US dollar more expensive than the yuan. Schumer and other critics in the Congress cite this as the main reason why the United States lost manufacturing investments and employment opportunities for Americans to the Chinese. It also gave the Asian country a significant advantage over the dollar when it comes to trade prices and revenues.

Mark Chandler from Brown Brothers Harriman in New York is certain that the US Congress will not be happy with the reported 10% increase of Chinese export to the United States. However, he adds that there won’t be much that they can do. “China is a member of the World Trade Organization, and we can’t just retaliate against some imaginary violation.”

This was an unexpected increase for the company who is currently facing problems with the fluctuating earnings of their Disney theme-parks (which suffered an 8% reduction in sales). Walt Disney also produced a couple of big-budget movies this year, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time”, which grossed badly in the local box office.

Top performing employees of Cydcor were rewarded with a weekend of fun and entertainment in Miami Beach as the company combined employee incentives with a social charity to help its employees make a difference.

The R&R Owners Weekend rewarded Cydcor’s independent sales associates with elegant dinners, poolside relaxation and recreation.

“We want our offices to know that their contributions over this past year are recognized and appreciated,” said Cydcor CEO Gary Polson. “We hope that this weekend of rest and relaxation showed our gratitude for their hard work and dedication.”

But employee rewards went beyond the individual, as the company announced its goal of raising $150,000 to support the nonprofit organization Operation Smile in its effort to provide surgery for children in Peru suffering from facial deformities.

“This is the first time that we have adopted a charitable organization on this scale – it’s a great way to exercise team building among our offices,” said Polson.

Providing employees with an avenue to contribute to charities is an important part of job satisfaction, according to consultant Peter Hart at Incentive Magazine.

People want to work for a company that is involved in social movements and gives something back, and supporting charities can help improve employee morale, he says.

Dell reported a 17% increase of their net income for the quarter in comparison to last year’s second quarter earnings. The company earned $545 million this year, up from the $472 million in 2009. This translates to 28 cents a share this year from the 24 cents a share of last year.

Dell CEO Michael Dell reported in a press conference that the company’s total sales went beyond the expected 15.2 billion. It went up 22% from the previous quarter, registering a total of $15.5 billion.
This increase of Dell’s revenue is because of the high demand for updating computers and information technology of their corporate clients within and outside the country. With the current trend of the local and international demand, it is expected that sales will continue to increase in the next quarter. Michael Dell is confident that their forecast of 14% sales increase for 2010 will be accomplished.