Philanthropy: From temples to technology - India's wealthy are finally giving to science - India's wealthy are finally giving to science

Last year, Indian-American physicist Jainendra Jain, a co-recipient of the prestigious 2025 Wolf Prize and a figure well-known for his revolutionary research in quantum physics, was taken aback when he received a call from an Indian real estate tycoon. Abhishek Lodha of the Lodha Group, whose projects include the ultra-luxury, golden-hued Trump Tower overlooking the Arabian Sea in southern Mumbai, asked the Penn State University professor if he could lead a new theoretical physics institute in the city as its founding director. "I was pleasantly surprised someone building skyscrapers would suddenly be interested in putting money into fundamental sciences. It's a common thing to do for very rich people in the US, but not so much in India," Jain told the BBC in late May at the glittering launch of the Lodha Theoretical Physics Institute. Weeks later, Rajiv Bajaj, scion to one of the country's oldest business dynasties, launched India's largest scholarship programme for women in core engineering, where female scholars would receive financial support of up to 800,000 rupees ($8,411, £6,293) for their education across select reputed universities. In a country where faith rather than sci