Talk about a man with a big heart.
Azim Premji, an Indian tech billionaire has resolved to donate billions of dollars to charity which could turn out to be a record in donations in the country’s history.
Premji, Indian’s second richest man is the chairman of tech company Wipro (WIT) an Indian multinational corporation that provides information technology, consulting and business process services. He will be transferring shares in the company worth nearly 530 billion rupees ($7.5 billion) to his philanthropic foundation.
The tech billionaire in total has donated $21 billion to the Azim Premji Foundation in the past years, including 67% of Wipro’s shares, the foundation said in a statement.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the 73-year-old is estimated to be worth more than $18 billion.
According to the CNN, Premji was the first Indian to sign the Giving Pledge, a campaign started by Warren Buffett with Bill and Melinda Gates to encourage billionaires around the world to commit most of their wealth to charity.
According to this year’s India Philanthropy Report by consulting firm Bain & Company and philanthropy fund Dasra, Premji accounted for 80% of “large donations” — defined as more than 100 million rupees ($1.4 million) — from India’s richest individuals in the 2018 financial year. Private individuals in India donate about 430 billion rupees ($6.2 billion) each year, the report said.
Premji’s father founded Wipro in 1945 as a vegetable oil manufacturer which later metamorphosed into a technology industry in the 1980s under Premji’s administration. It has since evolved into one of India’s biggest IT services companies, with over 160,000 employees worldwide and over 1,200 clients in industries ranging from aerospace to retail.
The billionaire ’s foundation seeks to support education and runs the Azim Premji University in Bangalore. His latest gesture could help it open a second university and “scale up significantly,” the organization said.
