The Bharti family has pledged a whopping Rs 7,000 crore or 10% of its wealth, including 3% of their stake in group flagship Bharti Airtel , to support activities of the Bharti Foundation , the Sunil Mittal-led Group’s philanthropic arm.The Bharti Family, by virtue of this commitment, aims to significantly step up the scope and reach of Bharti Foundation’s activities and enable it to develop and execute innovative development models to support aspirations of India’s underprivileged, including students of Satya Bharti Schools.“Bharti’s DNA has always been about creating a deep positive impact on society through our businesses, and we are proud to have contributed to the India growth story,” Bharti Enterprises founder and chairman Sunil Mittal said in an official statement Thursday.The Bharti family’s Rs 7,000 crore pledge is yet another reflection of growing enlightenment about philanthropy among India’s expanding cult of billionaires. Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani and wife Rohini recently signed the Giving Pledge initiative sponsored by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, an invitation to the world's wealthiest to donate a majority of their wealth to charity. Signatories to this initiative commit to give away at least half of their wealth either in their lifetime or through their will.The only other Indians to have signed the Giving Pledge initiative are Wipro Chairman Azim Premji, Biocon MD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and PNC Menon of Sobha Developers.Elaborating on the Bharti family’s philanthropic goals, Mittal said as firm believers in Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of trusteeship, it has always reckoned that “ownership of business is a social responsibility, and wealth creation cannot be an end in itself”.“Even when we were small in size and relatively modest with our business goals, we always aspired to be part of the wider nation building process,” Mittal, who is also Bharti Foundation Chairman said.Set up in the year 2000, Bharti Foundation has grown in scale and stature. Led by a full time CEO and COO, the Foundation’s team of over 200 professionals and some 8,000 teachers work across multiple programs in the areas of education of some 2,40,000 underprivileged children in rural India.Bharti Foundation has also supported the creation of Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology & Management at IIT Delhi, Bharti Centre for Communication at IIT Mumbai and Bharti Institute of Public Policy at ISB Mohali. It has also instituted a number of scholarship programs, the prominent being scholarship for Indian students studying at the University of Cambridge, UK.