Most Generous Indian Azim Premji Sets Aside Rs 52,750 Crore For Philanthropy

Generosity and kindness are some virtues that don’t come easy to everyone, but Aziz Premji sure looks like one of the exceptions. The second richest Indian and the Chairman of Wipro has set aside a massive amount of his shares for his philanthropic activities.

Read on to know all about this decision by Azim Premji!

Azim Premji and Philanthropy

According to a statement, Azim Premji has earmarked 34% of Wipro Ltd shares worth ?52,750 crore ($7.5 billion) for his philanthropic activities. The addition of this adds up to the already existing shares making Premji’s total contribution to the philanthropic endowment corpus is ?145,000 crore ($21 billion), which includes 67% of economic ownership of Wipro Ltd.

The statement by the city-based Foundation says, “Azim Premji has increased his commitment to philanthropy, by irrevocably renouncing more of his personal assets and earmarking them to the endowment, which supports Azim Premji Foundation’s philanthropic activities.”

Azim Premji has a record of being philanthropical and he had also been declared as the ‘most generous Indian’ by Hurun India Philanthropy List.

The Foundation’s Field of Interest

This Foundation focuses mainly on the educational improvement of India, and on improving the overall public schooling system. It also works in collaboration with other non-profit government organizations that work in the same field through multi-year financial grants.

As per the statement, this work is spread across multiple states including Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Puducherry, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh, along with some work in the northeastern states.

The Foundation has also set up the Azim Premji University in Bengaluru. The courses listed under this University are undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate courses in education and human development. The Foundation is looking to expand the Azim Premji University as well.

The statement said, “The university will expand to have 5,000 students with 400 faculty members across multiple programmes. Thereafter, another university in the northern part of India may be set up.”

Misers and Millionaires of India

Billionaires of the west make sure they use up quite some amount of their earnings for philanthropy. Mark Zuckerberg (he gave away 99% of his Facebook shares), Warren Buffet, Bill Gates are all included in the list.

While history saw a long line of philanthropic billionaires, the numbers have now dwindled down considerably. While Azim Premji and others like Anil Agarwal are contributing largely towards the betterment of society, it is not quite enough. Considering the population of the nation, the number of donations coming in will not suffice.

As per the World Giving Index, India is one of the least generous countries, ranking 106 in 2015.