Azim Premji Makes Huge Donation

DELHI, INDIA (GaeaTimes.com)- In what can be called the biggest ever individual philanthropic contribution in India the founder of Wipro, Azim Premji announced that he will give a whopping INR 8846 crore to a trust under his control. This money will be spent for charitable causes. The unique thing about this transfer that Azim Premji Trustee Company Pvt Ltd is getting can not be canceled. It will become effective in less than a week. The shares of Wipro are currently in possession of some private entities owned by him. While his stake in Wipro will reduce post this donation he will be able to retain the voting rights for these shares.

As a matter of fact the transfer is equal to a tenth of Azim Premji’s entire wealth derived from Wipro. The trust will make use of this money for a number of not-for-profit initiatives in the near future. The Azim Premji Foundation was set up in 2001 and since that time it has worked mostly in rural parts of India. It has also tied up with the state governments in various states of India to improve the standard of education among poverty stricken regions. So far it has covered around 2.5 million children all over the country since its start. Azim Premji said after declaring the donation ” We want to contribute significantly towards improvement of education in India, and through that towards building a better society”.

Azim Premji has also earned praise from the Karnataka government for setting up the Azim Premji University as per a special legislative act. It will start functioning in 2011.