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Wipro Chairman Azim Premji Pledges Shares Worth $7.5 Billion More To Philanthropy

Premji earmarked all economic benefits from 34 percent of his shares in Wipro, worth about $7.5 billion, for philanthropy.

Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro Ltd. (Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)
Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro Ltd. (Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro Ltd., just increased his commitment to philanthropy.

The technology billionaire earmarked all economic benefits from 34 percent of his shares in Wipro—worth about $7.5 billion and held by entities controlled by him—for philanthropy purposes, according to an exchange filing.

With this, the corpus of funds under the family’s endowment trust, which supports the Azim Premji Foundation’s philanthropic activities, has risen to nearly $21 billion (Rs 1.45 lakh crore).

Activities of the foundation are expected to scale up significantly over the next few years, the statement said, adding that the team driving the field of work in education for the foundation is expected to grow significantly from the current 1,600 people. The foundation plans to set up another university in north India.

Established in 2001, the Azim Premji Foundation, works in the area of primary education in many Indian states. He set up the Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives in 2014 to support other not-for-profits with multi-year grants. The initiative has also helped to improve the lives of street children and the disabled.

Wipro said that such grants have supported over 150 organisations engaged in a range of domain across India.