It may be India’s biggest single donation ever.
Azim Premji, chairman of tech company Wipro
and India’s second-richest man, is giving $7.5 billion
to his philanthropic foundation. The donation
brings his total contributions to the Azim Premji
Foundation to $21 billion over several years.
Premji, 73, has a net worth of more than $18
billion and was the first Indian to sign the Giving
Pledge, a campaign to encourage wealthy people
to contribute a majority of their
wealth to philanthropic causes.
In his 2013 letter to the Giving
Pledge, Premji emphasized his foundation’s goal
to improve public school education in India. “I
strongly believe that education is perhaps the
most important social institution to empower
individuals and shape a better society,” he wrote.
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
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