Azim Hashim Premji, an Indian businessman, investor, engineer, and philanthropist, was the chairman of Wipro Limited. Azim Premji birthdate is on July 24, 1945. Premji is still the founding chairman and a non-executive member of the board. He is referred to colloquially as the Czar of the Indian IT Sector. He was in charge of leading Wipro through four decades of expansion and diversification so that it could eventually become one of the world leaders in the software sector. Azim Premji zodiac sign is Leo. Azim Premji hobbies are Hiking, Jogging, and playing golf. Azim Premji Religion is Islam.
He was named one of Asia week’s top 20 most powerful men in the globe in 2010. Time magazine has included him on its list of the 100 most important people, once in 2004 and more recently in 2011. He has long been named one of The 500 Most Influential Muslims. He is also the Chancellor of Bangalore’s Azim Premji University. The Government of India presents Premji with the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civil award in India.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he has an estimated net worth of $32.8 billion, making him one of the wealthiest people in India.
By signing the Giving Pledge in 2013, he committed to giving away at least half of his wealth. Premji began by giving the $2.2 billion Azim Premji Foundation, which supports education in India. He came in first place on the 2020 EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List. After giving away a significant sum of money to charity in 2019, he fell from the second position on the Forbes India Rich list to the seventeenth position.
The Azim Premji Foundation, managed by Mr. Azim Premji, is a non-profit organization that has been assisting rural government schools with elementary education for the past 17 years. He has received recognition as both one of the nation’s powerful men and the most influential individual.
Azim Premji Biography
| Azim Premji | Details |
| Profession | Businessman |
| Celebrity Type | Businessman |
| Age | 77 Years |
| Date Of Birth | 24 July 1945 |
| Zodiac Sign | Leo |
| Birthplace | Mumbai |
| Height | 5.2 Feet |
| Weight | 65 Kgs |
| Net Worth | $23.9 billion |
| @premji_azim |
Also Read: Massive deal announced by Wipro, owned by Azim Premji, to invest Rs 5480000000!
Early life, Family and Education
Azim Hashim Premji was born on July 24, 1945, in Mumbai (then Bombay) to a Muslim family. His father Mohamed Hashim Premji was known as the Rice King of Burma. The founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, invited Premji’s father to live in Pakistan which the later turned down and chose to remain in India.
In 1945, Azim Premji’s father, Muhammad Hashim Premji established Western Indian Vegetable Products Ltd. in Amalner, Maharashtra. The company manufactured Sunflower Vanaspathi (cooking oil) and a laundry soap 787 (a byproduct of cooking oil).
Azim Premji is a graduate in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, USA. Premji married to Yasmeen and the couple has two sons– Rishad Premji and Tariq Premji. Currently, the elder son Rishad is the Chairman of Wipro Limited.
Also Read: Bhagwant Mann (Chief minister of Punjab) Biography
Azim Premji Marriage
Author Yasmeen Premji is the wife of Azim Premji is a businessman from India. Yasmeen’s marriage to Azim Premji brought her into a completely new world, although it was not different.
The principles of both families were similar, and Azim’s mother, a strong, educated woman who was charitable and actively engaged in social work, was similar to her mother. Dr. Gulbanoo Premji would develop into Yasmeen’s closest friend and philosopher.
Rishad and Tariq, the couple’s two children, were born. Currently, Wipro’s IT division’s chief strategy officer is Rishad Premji.
Career
Muhammed Hashim Premji established Western Indian Vegetable Products Ltd in 1945. The company is headquartered in Amalner, a tiny village in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district. It used to produce laundry soap with the brand name 787 as well as frying oil under the Sunflower Vanaspati label as a by-product. After learning of his father’s passing in 1966, Azim Premji, who was 21 at the time and attending Stanford University to study engineering, went home to take over Wipro.
Inheriting Western Indian Vegetable Products Ltd, a manufacturer of hydrogenated cooking oil, Azim Premji turned it into Wipro, a provider of IT consulting and system integration services that are now among the biggest providers of IT services globally. As of March 2015, the corporation had operations in 67 nations and a market valuation of about $ 35 billion.
However, Azim Premji later expanded the company’s product line to include baking fats, ethnic ingredient-based toiletries, hair care soaps, baby toiletries, lighting products, and hydraulic cylinders.
Recognizing the significance of the developing IT industry in the 1980s, the young businessman capitalized on the void left by IBM’s departure from India, changed the company’s name to Wipro, and entered the high-technology sector by producing minicomputers in technical cooperation with an American company, Sentinel Computer Corporation. Premji then concentrated on moving away from soaps and into the software.
Azim Premji in Business
In 1966, Azim Premji after his father’s death returned to India from the USA and took the charge of Wipro. The Western Indian Vegetable Products company was later diversified by Azim Premji into the company manufacturing bakery fats, ethnic ingredient based toiletries, hair care soaps, baby toiletries, lighting products, and hydraulic cylinders.
In the 1980s, after the expulsion of IBM from India, recognized the importance of the IT industry and changed his company name to Wipro. He entered into IT industry and manufactured minicomputers under technological collaboration with an American company Sentinel Computer Corporation.
Azim Premji: Philanthropy
My father has always believed that he was a trustee of his wealth and never it’s owner. Being part of the communities in which we live and work is also a core part of Wipro.
- In the year 2011, Azim Premji established a non-profit organization known as Azim Premji Foundation. In December 2010, Azim Premji pledged to donate 2 billion USD for improving the conditions of school education in India. For this, Azim Premji transferred 213 million equity shares of Wipro Ltd. held by him to the Azim Premji Foundation. This is one of the largest donations in India.
- In March 2019, Azim Premji pledged 34% shares of Wipro held by him to Azim Premji Foundation. The Azim Premji Foundation has warned the citizens against the fake messages claiming to be the foundation and requesting donations for the trust.
- Azim Premji was the first Indian to sign ‘The Giving Pledge’ led by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. This pledge was to encourage the wealthiest people around the globe to commit most of their wealth to philanthropy.
- In April 2013, Azim Premji stated that he has already given more than 25% of his wealth to charity.
- In July 2015, Azim Premji gave away 18% of his stake in Wipro totalling his contribution so far to 39%.
- On November 11, 2020, Azim Premji tops the seventh edition of EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2020 with a donation of ₹7,904 crores.
Azim Premji: Recognitions
- Business Week has recognised Azim Premji as one of the Greatest Entrepreneurs after Wipro emerges as one of the world’s fastest-growing companies.
- In 2000, Azim Premji was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Manipal Academy of Higher Education.
- In 2006, Azim Premji was awarded Lakshya Business Visionary by National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai.
- In 2009, Azim Premji has conferred an honorary doctorate from Wesleyan University in Connecticut for his outstanding philanthropic work.
- In 2015, Mysore University conferred an Azim Premji an honorary doctorate.
- In 2005, the Government of India awarded Azim Premji with Padma Bhushan for his work in trade and commerce.
- In 2011, Azim Premji was awarded Padma Vibhushan (second highest civilian award) by the Government of India.
- In 2017, Azim Premji ranked 9th in India’s most powerful people of 2017 list by India Today magazine.
Azim Premji is one of the wealthiest people of India and is more famous for his philanthropic work. He has also received several awards– Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, etc. Azim Premji has transformed Wipro under his leadership from a $2 million cooking fat company into a conglomerate.
Azim Premji Networth
Talking about the net worth of Azim Premji, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, by February 2023, the figure has been set at $ 9.3 billion and $ 25 billion. Premji started the Azim Premji Foundation, which focuses on Indian education, with a donation of $2.2 billion. In 2019, he was ranked 17th in the Forbes India Rich List. And in 2020, the admin got the top position in the Hurun India Philanthropist list.
Awards and Achievements
Several awards and honours are attributed to him are:
– In 2000, he received an honorary doctorate by Manipal Academy of Higher Education.
– Business Week has also recognised him as one of the Greatest Entrepreneurs for making Wipro one of the world’s fastest growing companies.
– In 2000, he was ranked among the twenty most powerful men of the world by AsiaWeek and by Time Magazine one of the hundred influential people in the world.
– The Government of India in 2005 honoured him with the Padma Bhushan for his excellence in areas of trade and commerce.
– He got the honorary degree from Aligarh Muslim University on their 58th Convocation Ceremony.
– For his immense philanthropic work he received an honorary degree in 2009 from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut for his outstanding philanthropic work.
– He received the India’s second highest honour Padma Vibhushan in 2011 by the Government of India.
– In 2013, he received the ET Lifetime Achievement Award.
– University of Mysore conferred the honorary doctorate to Azim Premji in 2015.
– India Today magazine ranked him 9th in India’s 50 most powerful people of 2017 list in April 2017.
So, now you may have come to know that Azim Premji being a powerful, wealthy person, chairman of Wipro, he is very down to earth. Created foundation to help children in the field of education, signed the Giving Pledge and conferred by various awards and honours.
Wipro Company Turnover
- He immediately implemented some major changes in the company, such as diversifying the supply. He also began to delve into consumer products such as soap, light bulbs, shoes and hydraulic products.
As the company no longer only traded plant-based products, Azim renamed the company Wipro in 1977. - In 1979, the legislation in India changed, causing major western companies such as IBM to leave the country. This also enabled companies from Shiv Nadar, among others, to significantly expand their market share. Azim saw his opportunity and tapped into the emerging computer parts market. Slowly he started to move Wipro into the computer sector.
- After several years of successful cooperation with the American Sentinel Computer Corporation, the company also plunged into the software side of the computer world.
- Driven by ambition and the search for quality, Azim Premji ensured that the best software engineers in the country were recruited. He gave them world-class training and development opportunities, keeping Wipro at the very top of the industry.
- The company was able to achieve this at a low cost, so it started exporting computer parts to the United States as well. The company grew even faster, the value of its shares continued to rise, and Premji quickly became one of the richest businessmen in the world.
Interesting Facts
- Azim Premji was born in Bombay in a Shia Muslim family with roots from Kutch in Gujarat.
- When Azim Premji gave his education-focused Azim Premji Foundation his Wipro shares worth $7.6 billion in 2019, Forbes Asia named him Asia’s most generous philanthropist.
- At the age of 21, Azim Premji enrolled in Stanford University’s Bachelor of Science degree. He left school and took over Wipro after his father’s sudden demise. After studying for more than 30 years, he finally finished.
- Azim Premji’s father, Muhammad Hashem Premji, was permitted by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the neighboring country’s founder, and first governor-general, to travel to Pakistan. His father, however, declined the invitation and remained in India.
- The second-highest civilian honor in India, the Padma Vibhushan, was given to Azim Premji in 2011.
- Premji has repeatedly stated his admiration for Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (JRD Tata), the creator of the nation’s biggest conglomerate, the Tata Group.
- Azim Premji continued to hold the top rank among Indian philanthropists by giving Rs 9,713 crore in donations in FY21, or Rs 27 million per day.
- Azim Premji received an honorary doctorate from Middletown’s Wesleyan University in 2009.
- According to Forbes, Premji has an $8.6 billion net worth as of July 2022.
- Premji has maintained his position as one of India’s richest men despite giving up a significant portion of his money. He currently holds the 18th position on Forbes’ list of India’s 100 wealthiest individuals.
- Azim loves hiking and watching movies with his family whenever he gets time.
- He considers his mother his Idol and wants to emulate her in her actions.
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