This would be the biggest ever charity gesture shown in India. Azim Premji has transferred Rs.12,300 crore worth of personal shares to his trust that funds his philanthropic activities. This comes on top of the transfer he did in 2010, which was then valued at Rs.8,846 crore.
The Azim Premji Foundation, the vehicle through which the philanthropic activities are conducted, said that Premji had transferred 295.5 million equity shares representing 12% of the total shares of Wipro, held by certain entities controlled by him, to an irrevocable trust. With this transfer, the trust’s shareholding in Wipro will go up to about 19.93%. “This trust will utilize the endowment to fund various social, not-for-profit initiatives of the Foundation, which are expected to scale significantly over the next few years,” the Foundation said.
The “Giving Pledge” campaign, led by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, recently named Premji among billionaires around the world who had committed a majority of their wealth to philanthropy. Premji and his family hold about 75% of the shares in Wipro, which has a revenue of $7 billion.
Recently, some major commitments have also come from other Indian industry bigwigs, including Shiv Nadar, founder of HCL, who gave Rs.580 crore towards education, and G M Rao, chairman of GMR Group, who gave Rs.152.89 crore for educating the underprivileged.
The Azim Premji Foundation, over the last two years, has done a slew of activities in education—established the Azim Premji University in Bangalore and institutes in three states and seven districts. Seven more district-level institutes are in various stages of formation.
The Foundation said it would open 60 district-level institutes and 8 state-level institutes across India by 2016. It will open 60 to 100 schools of its own. Premji University is expected to have 3,500 students in the next four years from 350 students now. “The district institutes will become outreach facilities for the university,” the Foundation said.
Dileep Ranjekar, CEO of the Azim Premji Foundation said: “We are looking at a 10-fold growth of our activities in the next three to four years. We set the momentum when the foundation announced a donation of Rs.8,846 crore in December 2010. Now we have another Rs.12,300 crore. Income from this corpus will generate funds to run our activities. To run our university alone we need Rs.150 crore a year. We have a faculty pool of 60. Also, school education for each student costs Rs.22,000 a year. It’s a long journey and investment will have to be continuous.”
In a recent letter pledging more money to the Foundation, Premji had written, “The developments of the past two years have given me confidence in our scaled-up and institutional strategy. Even as we execute this strategy, I am aware that ensuring stable funding source is critical for its success. I am committed to transferring more of my wealth to scale up the endowment of the foundation.”
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