Azim Premji Education Foundation

I am sure that all of you have heard about Azim Premji, full name Azim Hashim Premji the founder and Chairman of Wipro which is a software giant of Indian IT industry. Azim Premji is not only a businessman but investor and a person who seeks to promote for the welfare of others, especially by the generous donation of money to good causes. In fact Azim Premji is known as much for social welfare as much for his business activities. 

Azim Premji has been among the top money donator in the world for last three years leaving and, Nandan Nilekani and N. R. Narayana Murthy and all others far too behind. I have reasons to call him one of the biggest philanthropists in the world as he has donated Indian Rupees 450 billion plus (More than US$7.5 billion) for the cause of education. The amount he has spent for the cause of education is not the highest spent by an entrepreneur but he stands in 5th position among the world’s philanthropists’ list. 

One of the largest education providers

Incidentally, he is providing higher education to thousands of brilliant students every year providing them financial support.  I must mention at this point that Azim Premji foundation is an organization working in the field of education in 8 Indian states having a large number of schools.

I have been following Azim Premji for last eighteen years and found that he tries to put his thoughts into his real actions and the result is here for anyone to see. Besides managing such a huge number of schools Premji foundation offers scholarships in different field of higher education under his scheme “earn while you learn” that offers job to fresh graduates studying via distant education institutes. 

Fifth in the world

The fact that Azim Premji with $7.5 billion is far behind Mark Zuckerberg who gave away $46 billion which is almost 99% of his total income as Facebook shares which is way higher in philanthropic activity but Azim Premji is at the top donator in educational field India. Incidentally founder of Infosys is among the top contributors with Narayn Murthy of Infosys, Tatas and Birlas etc. 

I looked at all donators anywhere in the world for their noble cause whether they are industrialists or individuals who donate/collect money by different means for the sake of helping the needy or deserving persons achieving their goals and found that almost all famous industrialists contribute for the cause of education. However, if we look at the fact that his net worth is close to $20 billion, the amount he spends for the cause of education is really praiseworthy.