About Azim Premji

Great personality Azim Premji born on 24 July 1945. He is the Chairman of Wipro and a 

well-known philanthropist. He is also unofficially regarded as the Czar of the information technology industry of India. Ever since its inception, Wipro – under Premji’s capable guidance and leadership – has kept growing and diversifying and is right now held as one of the leading companies in its domain in the country. Premji was also supposedly the wealthiest person in the country in the six-year span of 1999 through 2005 according to Forbes.

The same globally-revered magazine also states that as of 2015, he is the fourth richest in India and 61st across the world. As of 2014, his personal wealth totalled to 16.4 billion. His personal net worth was estimated at 19.1 billion dollars in March 2015. During 2010, he was voted in Asia Week as one of the 20 most powerful men in the continent. TIME Magazine has twice enlisted him among the most influential 100 people in the world – first in 2004 and then in 2011. Premji holds 75% of the shares of his company, besides owning a private equity fund named Premjiinvest. Premjiinvest is responsible for managing the personal investment portfolio of Premji, which is estimated to be worth a billion dollars.

Azim Premji's Family

Azim Premji was born in Mumbai on 24 July 1945. He is a Gujarati Muslim and his family is originally from Kutch. His father Mohamed Hashem Premji was a famous businessman in his time and was also referred to as the ‘Rice King of Burma’. When India was partitioned, Muhammad Ali Jinnah – the founding father of Pakistan – had invited Premji’s father to stay over there. However, this request was turned down by Mohamed Premji. Azim Premji is married to Yasmeen Premji and they have two sons – Tariq and Rishad. Rishad is currently working as the Chief Strategy Officer for the IT business activities of Wipro.

Education of Azim Premji

              Azim Premji obtained a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. This is almost equal in importance to a graduate degree in engineering in India.

Azim Premji's Career

           Premji’s career started in 1966 when he had to cut short his education at Stanford University upon receiving the news of his father’s demise and come back home to take charge of his father’s company, which had been started in 1945. At that time, Wipro was working out of a small town in Maharashtra named Amalner and dealt in Sunflower Vanaspati, a cooking oil brand, and 787, a laundry soap that was the byproduct of cooking oil production.

Premji managed to diversify the company’s offerings by starting the production of bakery fat, various kinds of lights and related products, toiletries made from locally available ingredients, hydraulic cylinders, hair care soaps and toiletries for babies. Thanks to his visionary capabilities, he was able to understand the potential of information technology in the 1980s.

At that time, there was a significant gap in the IT market in India when IBM was shown the door. So, Premji changed the name of his company to Wipro and started to make microcomputers so as to gain entry into the sector for high technology products. In this project, he collaborated with Sentinel Computer Corporation, an American organization. Very soon, he made a complete shift from fast moving consumer goods to the technology industry.

NGOs and Foundations Opened by Azim Premji

          The life and times of Azim Premji are testament to the fact that he believes in giving back to the society in a meaningful manner and help it go ahead. In that vein, he has opened a number of charitable institutions and NGOs over the years. He has also taken part in some key charitable initiatives.

Azim Premji Foundation

           The Azim Premji Foundation was established in 2001 and is a major part of the philanthropic work done by Premji. It is a not-for-profit entity and its main aim is to come up with contributions that can help in realizing a level of universal education, which, in turn, will lead to a society that has values like justice, equality, humanity and sustainability at its core. The basic area of work of the foundation is elementary education.

           Through its work in this sensitive area of education in India, the Azim Premji Foundation is attempting to come up with proofs of concept that can change the very system in which the government-owned schools operate in India. The emphasis is on improving the quality of education on offer and bringing the schools at par with the best schools across the country. Most of these schools are in the rural area and this is where the foundation has been focusing to a significant extent. It currently functions in the states mentioned below:

        Karnataka, Puducherry,  Uttarakhand  Andhra Pradesh,       Rajasthan , Bihar,

     Chhattisgarh and  Madhya Pradesh.

Azim Premji Trust

During December 2010, Premji promised to provide 2 billion dollars for making school education in the country better than what it was. He transferred equity shares – amounting to 213 million in number – from his company to the Azim Premji Trust. This is supposed to be the biggest ever educational donation in the country.

Azim Premji University

The Azim Premji University was set up as per an act passed by the legislative assembly of Karnataka. Its main aim is to conceive and execute programmes that can help in the development of the overall educational scenario as well as a well-trained workforce. It also attempts to provide substitute models for changing the educational scenario. The university also puts in money in educational research with the end aim of widening the horizon of educational thoughts in India.

Participation in The Giving Pledge

The Giving Pledge is a campaign, a brainchild of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. Its primary aim is to provide encouragement to rich people to come forward and commit a part of their riches to philanthropic activities. Azim Premji is the first Indian to have signed up for the programme. In fact, he is the third person from outside the United States of America – he is preceded by David Sainsbury and Richard Branson - to have become a part of this initiative. As of April 2013, Premji has donated at least 25% of his personal wealth to the said charity.

Awards and Recognition won by Azim Premji

Over his illustrious career, Azim Premji has received a lot of honour and respect and been conferred with many awards. Business Week has hailed him as one of the 30 Greatest 

Entrepreneurs of all Time, which is no mean feat considering the global reach of the said publication. This recognition was in honour of the role that he has played over the years in making Wipro one of the top business organizations across the world in terms of growth.

Manipal University awarded him an Honorary Doctorate during 2000 and six years later, the National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai, conferred on him the Lakshya Business Visionary Award. The Wesleyan University of Middletown Connecticut awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2009. This was conferred as a way of appreciating the exceptional work that Premji had done in terms of philanthropy. His contributions to the world of trade and commerce were recognized when the Indian Government bestowed on him the title of Padma Bhushan in 2005. He received the Padma Vibhushan, which is the second most prestigious civilian award in India, in 2011. He also got the Economic Times Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.

Dhirubhai Ambani Biography

About Dhirubhai Ambani:

Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, known as Dhirubhai Ambani, was one of India’s greatest visionaries and iconic business tycoons. He was the founder of Reliance Industries Limited (established in 1966) and contributed greatly to the company’s meteoric rise. Reliance Industries is now ranked among the world’s top 500 companies in terms of the revenue it generates. Dhirubhai Ambani also founded Reliance Capital and Reliance Power and remained a dominant figure in the textile, petroleum, power and infrastructure industries of India until his death in 2002. Dhirubhai’s rags-to-riches story remains one of the most retold legends of corporate India and is an inspiration to the youth of this nation.

Early Childhood and Education of Dhirubhai Ambani

          Dhirubhai was born on 28 December 1932, into a Modh Baniya family, in Chorwad village in the district of Junagarh, Gujarat. Father Hirachand Govardhandas Ambani and mother Jamunaben Hirachand Ambani were folks of limited means and raised Dhirubhai and his four siblings – Trilochanaben, Ramnikbhai, Jasuben and Natubhai – with all what they had then. Despite being the son of a school teacher, Dhirubhai showed little interest in formal education; however, he grew up to be a hardworking, intelligent and tenacious young man. Even as a teenager, Dhirubhai showed a great deal of skill in retailing, selling oil and setting up fritters stalls, thus earning money to help his impoverished family. After completing his initial five years of education at the village school, he went to Junagarh to study further. Though not an academically brilliant student, Dhirubhai displayed exceptional leadership skills.

Dhirubhai’s confidence and organizational skills were tested when he defied the Junagarh Nawab’s ban on rallies and hoisted the Indian flag to celebrate the country’s independence. His first speech there inspired many and he became a hero for defying the police and the concerned authorities. The Nawab continued to hold off from joining the Indian Republic and Dhirubhai actively participated in the Praja Mandal protests, thus associating with patriotic rebel leaders who supported joining India. The Nawab ultimately yielded and Junagarh became a part of independent India.

Socialism and politics attracted 16-year-old Dhirubhai, who started dreaming about a new and progressive India, where industries would develop at an unprecedented rate and larger-than-life dreams of industrious young men would come true. Dhirubhai was determined to do his bit for his country and for himself. His father’s failing health and family’s financial crisis, however, forced Dhirubhai to give up his education and political interests and made him to set off to Aden to find work.

Dhirubhai Ambani's Early Career

By the time Dhirubhai reached Aden, it was one of the busiest ports in the world. At Aden, he started working as a clerk with A. Besse & Co – one of the biggest trading firms in the region. Dhirubhai made good use of this opportunity and learnt much about commodity trading, imports and exports, wholesale merchandising, marketing, and sales and distribution. He learnt about currency trading from the people of various nationalities whom he met at the port and mastered accounting, book keeping and drafting legal documents by moonlighting at a Gujarati trading firm. He soon discovered that he had a natural flair for speculative trading. In 1954, after marrying Kokilaben, Dhirubhai was sent by his employer to work in the Shell Oil Refinery that had come up in Aden. Having learnt the oil trade, Dhirubhai started to dream of owning his own refinery someday. Towards the end of the decade, when all the Indians in Aden were migrating to Britain, Dhirubhai decided to return to India and become a part of the phenomenal growth that the country had been awaiting. The implementation of the second five-year plan was underway and Dhirubhai astutely grasped the promise of industrial development and his own opportunities for growth.

Back in India, Dhirubhai found that he had very little capital to go into any purposeful business. He eschewed the idea of opening up a small grocery or cloth shop. His dreams were too big for him to be content with such humble trade. He immediately got in touch with his Arabian contacts, offering to export spices, sugar and other Indian commodities at very low prices. His margins were low; however, Dhirubhai chose to deal in bulk and as the orders started coming in, Reliance Commercial Corporation was born. Excellent service was its hallmark and trust became an important factor when people traded with Reliance.

Dhirubhai Ambani becoming Polyester Prince

Dhirubhai came to be known as a dependable and astute person. At times when he required funds, he approached Gujarati money lenders and traders with the promise of astounding interests and bonuses. He never failed in keeping his promise, absorbing the losses and sharing the profits with everyone. When he realized that commodities would not take him far, Dhirubhai decided to diversify into yarn. Dealing in textiles was a risky business as the fluctuations in prices were quite high. Dhirubhai, however, learned the tricks of the trade quickly and realized that there was more money in the business. He borrowed heavily and embarked on a journey that took him to dizzying heights. 

Setting up his first textile mill in Naroda, Ahemdabad, was the biggest hurdle of his life. With other mill owners opposing the sale of Vimal, the polyester brand, Dhirubhai and his team of highly motivated sales personnel cut through the middlemen (wholesalers) and went straight to the retailers. The popularity of the fabric and the persuasiveness of Dhirubhai led a number of retailers to sell "Only Vimal". A sound marketing strategy backed up the product and all of India was soon wearing textiles that came out of the Reliance factory. He equipped his factory with the best technology that could scale up with the rise in demand.

The growth of Reliance Industries was unprecedented and of the likes that had not been imagined until then. Reliance went from a turnover of Rs. 70 crore in the mid-1970s to being a Rs. 75,000-crore empire in 2002. High finance was one of Dhirubhai's key areas of success. He raised a great deal of money by issuing six series of convertible debentures and then converting them to equity shares at a premium. Reliance later diversified into energy, power, infrastructure services, retail, capital markets, telecommunications, logistics and information technology. By the time Dhirubhai died, in 2002, his sons Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani had taken over the charge of Reliance Industries Limited and Dhirubhai had become a national hero.