Summary

Azim Premji was born on July 24, 1945, in Bombay (now Mumbai), India. Premji is an Indian business entrepreneur and served as chairman of Wipro. Premji has graduated in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He was born to a Muslim family. His father was a noted businessman and founded Western Indian Vegetables Products. During the partition of India, the Premji family chose to remain in India, even though his family was personally invited by Pakistan’s founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah to shift to the country.

Personal Information

Major Timelines

• 1966: On hearing of his father’s death, Premji returned home from Stanford University and took charge of the family business which manufactured cooking oil under the name Sunflower Vanaspati and laundry soap called 787.
• 1977: Premji changed the name of the company to Wipro Limited.
• 1979: Recognising the importance of the emerging IT sector, Premji took advantage of the vacuum left behind by IBM which was forced to leave India and shifted his focus to developing India’s first minicomputer and personal computers.
• 2007: Wipro, in exclusive partnership with Z Research Inc, a California-based organisation, announced the launch of Wipro Supernova, a range of supercomputers and superstore in India.
• 2010: Premji pledged to donate $2bn for improving school education in India.
• 2011: Wipro built India’s fastest supercomputer for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) named SAGA-220 for about Rs 14 crore.
• 2013: Premji became the first Indian to sign up the ‘Giving Pledge’, a campaign led by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. The pledge made it mandatory for CEOs to donate a majority of their wealth. Premji donated $2.2bn, representing a 12% stake in Wipro.
• 2020–21: Premji made donations worth Rs 9,713 crore during the fiscal year. reinforcing his position as one of Asia's top philanthropists.
• 2013: He received the Cybermedia Business ICT Award for Lifetime Achievement in ICT.

Achievements

• 2005: Premji was awarded a Padma Bhushan for his outstanding work in trade and commerce.
• 2007: He was featured in Business Week’s “30 Greatest Entrepreneurs of all Time”.
• 2009: He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Wesleyan University for his outstanding philanthropic work.
• 2011: Premji was awarded the Padma Vibhushan.
• 2018: He was conferred with the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, the highest French civilian distinction by the French Government.
• 2019: Forbes listed Premji as one of the world’s most generous philanthropists outside of the US.

Philanthropy and Personal Life

In 2001, Premji established the Azim Premji Foundation that focuses on improving the quality of education in India, operating in several states and reaching over 3,50,000 schools. He also founded the Azim Premji University in 2010 in Bengaluru which aims to develop professionals in the fields of education and development, addressing the nation's need for competent and committed individuals in these sectors.