Azim Hashim Premji born on July 24, 1945, is an Indian business fundraiser, investor, engineer, and philanthropist, former chairman of Wipro Limited. Premji remains a non-executive member of the board and chairman of the founder. He is informally known as the Czar of the Indian IT Industry. He was responsible for directing Wipro for forty years of diversity and growth, eventually emerge as one of the global leaders in the software industry. In 2010, he was voted among the 20 most powerful men in the world in an Asian week. He was twice counted among the 100 most influential people by TIME Magazine, once in 2004 and most recently in 2011. For years, it has been one of the world's 500 Most Influential Muslims.
He has
been named the third richest man in India with an estimated US $ 31.3 billion
according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. [3] In 2013, he agreed to donate
at least half of his fortune by signing The Giving Pledge. Premji started by
donating R2.2 billion to the Azim Premji Foundation, focusing on education in
India. He passed the EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List in 2020.
• Early life and education
Premji
was born in Bombay, India to a Gujarati Muslim family. His father was a
prominent businessman and was known as the Rice King of Burma. Muhammad Ali
Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, invited his father Muhammad Hashem Premji to
come to Pakistan, refused the offer and chose to stay in India.
Premji
holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering degree from
Stanford University. He is married to Jasmeen. The couple has two children,
Rishad and Tariq. Rishad Premji is currently the Chief Strategy Strategy for IT
Business, Wipro.
Work
In 1945, Muhammed Hashim Premji merged Western Indian Vegetable Products Ltd, based in Amalner, a small town in the Jalgaon region of Maharashtra. It used to produce cooking oil under the brand name Sunflower Vanaspati, as well as washing soap called 787, an oil production product. In 1966, in the news of the death of his father, 21-year-old Azim Premji returned home from Stanford University, where he was studying engineering, to manage Wipro. The company, then known as Western Indian Vegetable Products at the time, was involved in hydrogenated production but Azim Premji separated the company from baking oil, sterile toiletries, hair care soap, baby washes, lighting products and pressure cylinders.
In the 1980s, a young businessman, realizing the importance of the
emerging IT industry, seized the opportunity left behind by the dismissal of
IBM in India changed the company's name to Wipro and entered the high-tech
industry by producing small computer technologies to partner with American
company Sentinel [22] Computer Corporation. After that Premji made a focused
change from the pillars to the software.
Recognition
Premji
has been recognized by Business Week as one of the Big Business Entrepreneurs
with a commitment to emerging Wipro as one of the fastest-growing companies in
the world.
In 2000,
he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Manipal Academy of Higher
Education. In 2006, Azim Premji was awarded the Lakshya Business Visionary by
the National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai. In 2009, he was
awarded a prestigious doctoral degree from Wesleyan University in Middletown,
Connecticut for his outstanding contribution. In 2015, the University
University awarded him a prestigious doctoral degree.
In 2005,
the Government of India honoured him with the title of Padma Bhushan for his
outstanding work in trade and commerce.
In 2011,
she was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest public award by the
Government of India.
In April
2017, India Today magazine placed ninth on the list of the most powerful Indian
people of 2017.
In 2018,
Premji was awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur (Knight of the Legion
of Honor) - France's largest difference made by the French Government.
In
December 2019, Premji was quoted by Forbes magazine as one of the Heroes of
Philanthropy's list of 30 altruists in the Asia-Pacific region.
Foundation of Azim Premji
In 2001,
he founded the Azim Premji Foundation, a non-profit organization.
In
December 2010, he promised to donate the US $ 2 billion to improve school education
in India. This was done by transferring 213 shares of Wipro Ltd, owned by several subsidiaries, to the Azim Premji Trust. This is the largest donation
of its kind in India. In March 2019, Premji promised another 34% of the Wipro
stock he held at the base. At a current value of about US $ 7.5 billion, this
allocation will bring the total amount from him to base to the US $ 21 billion.
In May
2020, the Azim Premji Foundation collaborated with the National Center for
Biological Sciences, and the Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative
Medicine to expand experimental infrastructure to deal with the coronavirus
epidemic.
The
Foundation has warned of fraudulent emails claiming to be from this foundation
and requesting false donations.
Promise
of Giving
Premji
said getting rich "did not please him". He became the first Indian to
sign up for The Giving Pledge, a campaign led by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates,
to encourage the wealthiest people to commit to donating more of their wealth
to charitable purposes. He is the third non-American after Richard Branson and
David Sainsbury to join the charity club.
In April
2013 he said he had already donated more than 25 per cent of his personal wealth
to charities.
In July
2015, he donated 18% of his additional stake to Wipro, taking his total
contribution to date to 39%.
The first
Indian to sign a pledge to donate, giving his life is now worth the US $ 21
billion. In April 2019, Azim Premji became India's leading service provider.
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