Section 34
Azim Premji
Took over a family cooking-oil firm at 21 and turned it into Wipro, a global IT company. (Wipro)
- life
- Born 1945
- era
- 1947 to 1991
- ₹1.45 lakh crore
- Total philanthropic endowment (about) · 2019
- ₹52,750 crore
- Value of the 2019 pledge · 2019
The story
Azim Premji was studying at Stanford University in 1966 when his father died. He came home and, at 21, took charge of the family company, Western India Vegetable Products, which made cooking oil in Amalner, Maharashtra.
He diversified into toiletries, light bulbs and hydraulic cylinders, and as the 1970s ended he moved Wipro into computer hardware and software, when IT in India was still small. The company took the short name Wipro and became one of India's large IT services firms.
He set up the Azim Premji Foundation, which works mainly to improve government schools. On 13 March 2019 he committed the economic benefit of another 34% of Wipro shares, worth Rs 52,750 crore, taking his total endowment to about Rs 1.45 lakh crore, including 67% of the economic ownership of Wipro.
Timeline
- 1945Born in Bombay.
- 1966Takes over the family firm at 21 after his father's death.
- 2017Receives the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy.
- 2001Sets up the Azim Premji Foundation.
- 2019Commits a further 34% of Wipro's economic benefit to philanthropy.