As the world is tackling coronavirus pandemic India’s second richest man, Azim Premji, is donating billions of dollars to his philanthropic foundation. Azim Premji, MD and Founder of Wipro Limited has contributed by committing 34 percent of shares – worth 7.5 billion dollars or 52,750 crores to philanthropy.
Premji was the world’s largest contributor to philanthropy in 2019 and has also signed ‘The Giving Pledge’ for the charity.
Moreover, his donation has brought the total value of his philanthropic donation to a massive 1,45, 000 crores – or 21 billion dollars, making it the largest charitable donation in the world.
In a statement, the Azim Premji Foundation said, “The Foundation’s extensive fieldwork in education has been in some of the most disadvantaged parts of India, to help contribute to the improvement of quality and equity of the public (government) schooling system. All this work has been in close partnership with various State Governments. Currently this fieldwork is spread across Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Puducherry, Telangana, and Madhya Pradesh, along with some work in the north-eastern states of India.”
The foundation is a non-profit organization set up in 2000 to improve education in India and established Azim Premji University ten years after its founding. Its goal is to“change the public education system rather than create ‘islands of excellence.”
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The initiative to support other not-for-profits by providing multi-year grants was launched in 2014 by the Foundation.
Over the past five years, these grants have supported more than 150 organizations working in various fields in India.
Azim Premji Foundation
Azim Premji Foundation was created in 2000 and is a non-profit foundation. The Foundation has focused on improving education in India, leading to the establishment of the Azim Premji University a decade after its founding. The aim of the Azim Premji University is to change the public education system rather than creating islands of excellence.
World’s largest contributor to philanthropic work
In the year 2019, Azim Premji was the world’s largest contributor to philanthropy. The same year, Azim Premji was also named as Asia’s most generous philanthropist. In addition to this, he has also topped the Forbes’ list of ‘The Biggest Philanthropic Gifts Of 2019’. He has twice been listed among the 100 most influential people by TIME Magazine in the year 2004 and 2011.
