Wipro Founder Chairman Azim Premji turned 75 today. In April 2020, as the coronavirus spread around the world, the Foundation also pledged $134 million, to assist the COVID-19 pandemic in India.
SOME KEY HIGHLIGHTS ABOUT HIM:-
- Indian tech magnate Azim Premji’s $8.4 billion (revenue) Wipro is India’s fourth-biggest outsourcer.
- Premji gave up his studies at Stanford in 1966 to look after the family’s cooking oil company when his father died, extending it to the software.
- Wipro has an innovation hub in Silicon Valley that focuses on creating new technology and partnering with start-up companies.
- Richard, the son of Premji, succeeded his father as Chief Executive Officer of Wipro in July 2019.
On 24 July 2020, the President of Wipro Limited had $6.6 billion in real-time net worth.
- Training and entrepreneurial spirit:
The fourth-largest outsourcer in India is Wipro, the IT company that he created, with a turnover of $8,4billion. Premji was born and was a good student of Mohamed Hashem Premji ‘s father. In 1966, he studied at Stanford (United States), when his father unexpectedly died, he had to leave high school (at the age of 21) to take care of the family’s oil company. However, even though he took 30 years to study again, he was awarded a B.A. in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University.
- Took the chance to travel the IT wave:
Azim Premji took over the business in 1945 and split it into other products, including hydraulic valve products, soaps, and lighting devices. Azim Premji was also involved in the industry. He renamed his company Wipro in 1977. Following the withdrawal from India by IBM, Premji began manufacturing microcomputers under an agreement with Sentinel Computers based in the United States to share technologies and soon diversified to include software solutions in addition to their hardware activities. In 1999 the only Indian maker of computers accredited to Y2 K by the National Computer Testing Laboratory (I) was Wipro.
- Strong perception, plain living:
Premji’s, easy sweet lifestyle is known to stay. His staff always talk of his frank, humble, and frugal approach to office management. Wipro has a Silicon Valley Innovation Center focusing on the creation and partnership of emerging technology with startups. he has two children-Rishad and Tariq. As executive president of Wipro, Rishad replaced his father in July 2019.
- Areas of philanthropy:
Founded in 2001, Azim Premji ‘s philanthropic arm “Azim Premji Foundation” works in basic education with a rural emphasis on improving the standard and equity of school education. Not only because the coronavirus spread through the globe in April 2020, but also because the foundation pledged $134 million to help the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Premji is recognized as one of the world’s wealthiest billions since giving away his charitable foundation of $21 billion earlier.
- Seeks a fairer representation of the oppressed:
Once the administration had to rely on lockdown to avoid the world pandemic march, thousands of stranded migrant workers started to return to their home country by taking the highways and following silent trains. In such a humble disaster, an upcoming train mowed 16 of them as they slept on tracks they had faith that no train was being used. The incident had moved Premji profoundly. He wrote in a long article for the Economic Times:
“Those sixteen young men died because we have almost no social security and too little protection – not because we have too much of it. This is also why the lives of hundreds of millions have been torn asunder in the tsunami of the pandemic, not only because of structural poverty and inequality…”
The views expressed by the author are personal and do not in any way represent those of Times Network.
