SAN JOSE, USA: Now “haves” are showing a more heartfelt humanitarian gesture towards their “have-not” counterparts on the planet. Asking American billionaires to contribute half of their wealth to charity, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and billionaire investor Warren Buffett are reportedly launching a campaign.

As part of the campaign, people are being asked to pledge to donate either during their lifetime or at the time of their death. The campaigners estimate their efforts could generate $600 billion dollars for charity, reported Associated Press.

In 2009, American philanthropies received a total of about $300 billion in donations, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Bill Gates has been promoting charitable activities through his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The primary aims of the foundation are, globally, to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, and in America, to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology.

In India, Gates had last year assured Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar, that his Foundation would assist Bihar in health-related issues and the programs being run by the state government.

Recently, Gates had also visited Rae Bareli and Amethi in Uttar Pradesh along with Rahul Gandhi and said that he would try to develop Amethi into an information technology hub.

In July 2006, Warren E. Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and one of the world's wealthiest men, donated the bulk of his $44 billion fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four other philanthropies.

The donations had represented a historic act of charitable giving that vaulted him into the top tier of industrialists and entrepreneurs who are well known for their charitable giving.

In a message while introducing the campaign concept, Buffett said that he couldn't have been happier with his decision in 2006, to give 99 per cent of his roughly $46 billion fortune to charity.

(But, what do you think of the India scenario? Are Indian corporates and billionaires still too self-centric when it comes to charity? What is your message to the corporate giants on 'charity as a social responsibility'?)