(Update) Did Indian tycoons snub Gates, Buffett?

Barely a dozen of the country's 55-odd billionaires turned up to be browbeaten by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett about giving to charity last week, reports India's Economic Times newspaper. Mukesh Ambani, India's richest person, opted to watch India beat Australia in the ICC Cricket World Cup instead.

But does this mean India's rich don't care about giving to the poor, or was this a snub to the two goras (white dudes) who'd come to town all pedantic? the paper wonders.  And guess what – It comes down on the side of snub.

The paper quotes a series of top Indian industrialists protesting too much. India's rich DO give back, apparently. Here's Rahul Bajaj, for instance: "India has a very old culture of giving, since the time of Buddha. The concept of philanthropy is not new to us."

Here's Yusuf Hamied, chairman & managing director, Cipla: "Philanthropy in the first world and in the third world are two different things. In the first world people donate to build a baseball stadium. In India, we have to decide for ourselves what we want out of philanthropy. It is not for the Americans to tell us."

Part of a global campaign dreamed up by the two latter day Rockefellers, the pledge asks fellow billionaires to commit half of their wealth to good causes. So far, 59 rich Americans have taken the pledge.

India's booming economy, growing by 9% annually, has helped to create 55 billionaires with an average net worth of $4.5 billion, according to Forbes. That's the third-largest pool of billionaires after the US and China. But India's wealthiest social class has the lowest level of giving, just 1.6% of household income compared to 1.9% for the country's middle classes, according to Bain.

Not so good, considering that a series of Indian governments have bent over backward to make India's richest even richer, creating a new class of robber barons, according to many observers.