Azim Premji (Gujarati: અઝીમ પ્રેમજી
(born July 24, 1945), is an Indian industrialist. He is the Chairman of Wipro, one of the largest software companies in India. According to Forbes, he is currently the second richest Indian with a personal wealth of US$17 billion in 2010[5] Azim Premji was rated the richest person in the country from 1999 to 2005 as per Forbes[6]. In 2000, he was voted among the 20 most powerful men in the world by Asiaweek. He was also among the 50 richest people in the world from 2001 to 2003 according to Forbes. In April 2004, he was rated among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. His assets include 74% of Wipro, the remaining 26% belonging to the cofounder of Wipro. Premji is now the chairman of Wipro. Wipro grew from a company of US $2.5 million to a giant of $1.4 billion under Premji's leadership. Premji's company dealt in hydrogenated cooking fats, along with consumer products. Now, however Wipro is one of India's largest software companies and is ranked among the top 100 technology companies globally.
Personal life
Premji was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, to a Gujarati Khoja Shia Isna-ashari Muslim family. His father M. H. Premji owned the Western India Vegetable Product Company (which later became Wipro Ltd.) which made hydrogenated vegetable oils and fats. His grandfather was the rice king of Burma. His father had declined an invitation from M.A. Jinnah to go to Pakistan.[8] While he completed his initial education at St. Mary's School, Mumbai, Premji was forced to leave his studies in electrical engineering from Stanford University, California, USA at the age of 21 to take over the family business when his father, M.H. Premji, suddenly died in 1966. He has since after a gap of over thirty years completed his degree in Electrical Engineering.[9]
When Azim Premji occupied the hot seat, Wipro dealt in hydrogenated cooking fats and later diversified to bakery fats, ethnic ingredient based toiletries, hair care soaps, baby toiletries, lighting products, and hydraulic cylinders. Thereafter Premji made a focused shift from soaps to software.[10] The Amalner-based vanaspathi manufacturing company, the Western India Vegetable Product later became Wipro Products Ltd, Wipro Technologies and Wipro Corporation. Under Premji’s leadership Wipro embarked on an ambitious phase of expansion and diversification. The Company began manufacturing light bulbs with General Electric and other consumer products including soaps, baby care products, shampoos, powder etc. In 1975, Wipro Fluid Power business unit manufacturing hydraulic cylinders and truck tippers was started. But Premji’s ambitions did not stop there. In the 1980s Wipro entered the IT field, taking advantage of the expulsion of IBM from the Indian market in 1975. Thus, Wipro became involved in manufacturing computer hardware, software development and related items, under a special license from Sentinel. As a result, the $1.5 million company in hydrogenated cooking fats grew within a few years to a $662 million diversified, integrated corporation in services, medical systems, technology products and consumer items with offices worldwide. The company’s IT division became the world’s first to win SEI CMM level 5 and PCMM Level 5 (People Capability Maturity Model) certification, the latest in quality standards. A large percentage of the company’s revenues are generated by the IT division. Wipro works with leading global companies, such as Alcatel, Nokia, Cisco and Nortel and has a joint venture in Medical Systems with General Electric company.[9]
Premji is married to Yasmeen, the couple have two children, Rishad and Tariq. Rishad is married to Aditi.
Premji is known for his modesty and frugality in spite of his wealth. He drives a Toyota Corolla and flies economy class, prefers to stay in company guest houses rather than luxury hotels and even served food on paper plates at a lunch honouring his son's wedding.[11]
Honours and awards
Premji has been recognized by Business Week as one of the Greatest Entrepreneurs[12] for being responsible for Wipro emerging as one of the world’s fastest growing companies.
In 2000, he was conferred an honorary doctorate by the Manipal Academy of Higher Education.
As on March 9, 2010, he was one of the wealthiest people in India, with a net worth of $17 billion.[13]
He was awarded a Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.), an honorary degree , from the Aligarh Muslim University on the 18th of June, 2008 on the occasion of 58th Convocation Ceremony of the University.
In 2009, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut for his outstanding philanthropic work.[14]
[edit]Azim Premji Foundation
The Azim Premji Foundation says it "Aims at making a tangible impact on identified social issues by working in active partnership with the Government and other related sectors of society". The Foundation was set up with financial resources contributed by Azim Premji.
Programmes of the Azim Premji Foundation focus on "creating effective and scalable models that significantly improve the quality of learning in the school and ensure satisfactory ownership by the community in the management of the school". Azim Premji Foundation says it "dedicates itself to the cause of Universalization of Elementary Education in India"[citation needed]. The organisation has over the years been instrumental in improving the quality of general education, particularly in rural schools[citation needed].
Citing a technology initiative, the Foundation reported: "Think of a single PC with three display terminals, three keyboards and three 'mouses', which can be simultaneously used as if they are three independent computers"[citation needed].
Five new titles of educational CDs for Indian schools were produced earlier in 2005. They are:
Friendly Animals and Journey on the Clouds (English)
Swatantra Divas
Fun with Chinchoo in Mathematics
Khel-Mel (Hindi), released in February 2005.
With these, the total number of master titles available is 70[citation needed].
There are now 68 titles in Karnataka, 42 for Andhra Pradesh, 35 for Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, 18 for Urdu medium schools, six for Orissa, 14 for Gujarat, 3 for Punjab and 1 for Kerala.
This Foundation is also involved in computer-based assessment in Andhra Pradesh (50,000 students took part in early 2005), a learning guarantee programme, and a policy planning unit in Karnataka.
