Rs. 2.5 b donor to Rotary real estate tycoon in Sri Lanka

The Indian Rs. 1 billion donor to Rotary, Indian real estate investor Dokoju Ravishankar is in Sri Lanka to address the Rotary District Conference – Sri Lanka and Maldives to be staged at Galadari Hotel from 5-6 April.

Indian real estate investor Dokoju Ravishankar

The Bengaluru-based real estate tycoon Ravishankar had his early education in a government school. His father Kamesh was a freedom fighter and while in the final year of engineering, burnt all his books which were British and went to prison for about four years. He was a recipient of the Indian recognition Tamrapatra, which recognised him as a freedom fighter.

Later influenced by Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan movement his father gifted away all the land he had — some seven to eight acres. As explanation to a non-Indian audience, Vinoba Bhave was considered as a National Teacher of India and the spiritual successor of Mohandas Gandhi. He started the Bhoodan Movement of accepting gifts of land and donating it to the poor and landless, for them to cultivate. When Ravishankar was in Class 4, his father suddenly passed away, leaving his mother with seven children and barely Indian Rs. 100 in the bank and not a single asset. His mother refused to beg but thanks to the goodwill of his father as a former general manager of a company, both his brothers got jobs.

He ended up with a BA degree and a diploma in business administration and marketing management. In his own words it wasn’t a smooth ride for he was never “a good student,” having failed in class 10 not once but twice.  He also admits falling into bad company, stealing things, black marketing cinema tickets, and so on.

In 1980, he began working in a small company at a salary of Indian Rs. 105. He relates how he had to change buses three times to reach office, leaving home at 5 a.m. to reach at 8:30 a.m. His lunch was some left over rice or kanji. While changing buses he would buy a banana for nutrition. After a short sting with printing and designing, he ended up in real estate. His business grew steadily. 

He joined Rotary and found it to be a platform to connect with people and change lives. Rotary gave him the opportunity to do things and he has some impressive projects to his credit. He built an old-age home in his home state and schools in the Northeast India. He has also offered to build schools in rural areas in Lahore and Islamabad and has connected with the DGs in Pakistan, telling them he wished to do this “as we were all brothers before the Partition and share the same blood”. He believes “when people connect, governments cannot separate or stop us”. 

Ravishankar pleasantly shocked the whole world by donating to the TRF this year Indian Rs. 1 billion which is equivalent to giving away Sri Lanka Rs. 2.5 billion, which according to him is 70% of his wealth. He became the second single largest giver to the Rotary Foundation in its history after Bill Gates.

The PR Chairman for Rotary Sri Lanka and Maldives Dr. Rohantha Athukorala said: “Recently he gave away his Mercedes car which had done only 3000 km for an auction with all proceeds to go to Rotary Foundation; his attitude to life is very rare in the world.” He is married to Paola after a four-year courtship in 1988 and they have two daughters, Ektaa and Samta. The whole family wholeheartedly supports him in his philanthropy activities. He is a senior member of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India.