Azim Premji
 | This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. (April 2008) |
Azim Premji | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 24, 1945 |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Spouse | Yasmeen Premji |
Azim Premji (Gujarati:અઝીમ પ્રેમજી) (born July 24, 1946), an Indian born Ismaili Muslim businessman, is the Chairman & CEO of Wipro, one of the largest software companies in India. Its headquarters are in Bangalore, "the Indian Silicon City". Azim Premji was rated the richest person in the country from 1999 to 2005 by Forbes[1]. His wealth in 2006 was estimated at $14.8 Billion [2] which places him as the Fifth Richest Indian. He is now considered to be worth closer to 17.1 billion.
Early life
Premji attended St. Mary's School I.C.S.E. in Mazagaon, Mumbai. Premji was just finishing his undergraduate engineering studies at Stanford University in 1966 when his father passed away. He immediately returned to India where he took over the family's fledgling vegetable oil business. Premji started off with a simple vision: to build an organization on a foundation of values. Premji eventually received permission to take correspondence art courses to complete the requirements for his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering.
Awards and Accolades
In 2000, he was conferred an honorary doctorate by the Manipal Academy of Higher Education. He was also declared the Businessman of the Year 2000 by Business India and is featured in the Business Weeks all-time top 30 entrepreneurs of the world in 2007. He is a member of the Prime Minister's Advisory Committee for Information Technology in India.[3]
As of October 6, 2007, he is the 5th richest Indian, with a net worth of $13.6 billion. Though Fortune Magazine estimated his wealth as over 17 billion USD just 2 months earlier...[4]
Family & Personal Life
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. [1]
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". The organisation has over the years been instrumental in improving the quality of general education, particularly in rural schools.
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". This innovative idea from the Azim Premji Foundation is being deployed in the computer aided learning centre at the Byatarayanapura Higher Primary School in Bangalore South District and in another school.
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 and Khel-Mel (Hindi), released in February 2005. With these, the total number of master titles available is 70.
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.
See also
References
External links
- Wipro Technologies Official Site
- Azim Premji's profile at Wipro's official site
- Forbes.com: Forbes World's Richest People
- Profile on virtualbangalore.com
- "Defining moments:Azim Premji" - BBC News dated July 2003
- Azim Premji Foundation
- The Observer: The Story of Bangalore Bill
- A Book on Azim and how he build Wipro