Latest news with #AzimPremji
News18
4 days ago
- Business
- News18
Gujarati Bizman Rejected Jinnah's Offer To Become Pakistan's 1st Finance Minister. His Son Is…
Azim Premji's father, Mohamed Hasham Premji, founded Western India Products Ltd in 1945. It later changed its name to Wipro. Wipro founder chairman Azim Premji turned 80 recently. A big name in business, Premji played a big role in strengthening Wipro's business interests in sectors like cooking oil, IT, BPO and R&D services organisation after his father, Mohamed Hasham Premji, passed away in 1966. But, not many know that Muhammad Ali Jinnah himself offered the post of Pakistan's Finance Minister to Mohamed Hasham Premji. Hasham Premji belonged to a Gujarati Ismaili Muslim family. He founded a vegetable oil company called Western India Products Ltd in 1945, the same year his son Azim was born. When the partition happened in 1947, Premji and his family chose to stay in India. Reports suggest that Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan, was keen to have Hashem as a cabinet minister and had even personally approached him on the matter. Dinesh C Sharma mentioned this incident in his book The Long Revolution—the birth and growth of India's IT industry, explaining that Mohamed Hasham Premji had been offered the post of Pakistan's first Finance Minister. Premji, also known as the 'Rice King of Burma', had moved to Bombay with his family for trading. How Western India Products Ltd Became Wipro Western India Products Ltd was mainly focused on producing sunflower vanaspati oil. It shifted to making soaps and other consumer care products later. In 1966, Azim Premji dropped out of Stanford after his father's death and assumed responsibility for the business. He expanded the company, making a foray into IT and other sectors. Under his leadership, the firm changed its name to Wipro Products Ltd and then to Wipro Ltd in 1982. Wipro is now one of India's most well-known companies. Azim Premji is listed in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a net worth of $11.8 billion. He stepped down from leading the company in 2019 and his son Rishad became the executive chairman of the conglomerate. view comments First Published: Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Mint
6 days ago
- Business
- Mint
‘Happy 80th to this guy': Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji shares pic with father Azim Premji
Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji extends wishes to his father, Azim Premji, the veteran businessman and former chairman of the tech giant, on his 80th birthday. Sharing a few pictures on the social media platform X, Rishad Premji wrote,"Happy 80th birthday to this guy." Born on July 24, 1945, Azim Premji has played a vital role in leading Wipro for nearly forty years, transforming the $2 million hydrogenated cooking oil company into a global IT, BPO, and R&D services organisation. In 2001, he founded the Azim Premji Foundation, a non-profit organisation aimed at improving the quality and accessibility of India's public school system. The Foundation collaborates with over 350,000 schools across seven Indian states. It also operates Azim Premji University, which emphasises teaching and research programmes in education and other areas of human development. As of December 2024, Premji's net worth is estimated at $35.9 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Azim Premji has earned several accolades over the years. BusinessWeek listed him among the top 30 entrepreneurs in world history. Additionally, Financial Times, Time, Fortune, and Forbes have all recognised him as one of the most influential people globally. He was recognised by the Journal of Foreign Policy as one of the leading global thinkers. Azim is the first Indian to receive the Faraday Medal. He was honoured with honorary doctorates from Michigan State University, Wesleyan University, and the Indian Institutes of Technology at Bombay, Roorkee, and Kharagpur. The Republic of France honoured him with their highest civilian award, the Knight of the Legion of Honor. In January 2011, he received India's second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan. Additionally, he was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2017. Azim Premji also serves as director of the following group organizations such as Wipro Enterprises Private Limited, Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives Private Limited, Azim Premji Custodial and Management Services Private Limited, Azim Premji Foundation for Development, Azim Premji Trustee Company Private Limited, Azim Premji Trust Services Private Limited, Azim Premji Safe Deposit Company Private Limited, Wipro GE Healthcare Private Limited and Azim Premji Foundation.
Time of India
6 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Celebrating 80 Years of Purpose — The Premji Way, the Wipro Spirit
1 2 3 Bengaluru: It's a rare milestone when a legendary leader and the company he helped transform into a global IT powerhouse reach the same landmark together. As Azim Premji celebrates his 80th birthday on Thursday, Wipro too is gearing up to mark its 80th anniversary this December—a unique convergence of legacy, leadership, and philanthropy. Premji once dreamt of a career at the World Bank after graduating from Stanford, but the sudden passing of his father, Mohamedhusain Hasham Premji, compelled him to return to India, cut short his education, and take charge of the family business—eventually becoming Wipro's managing director in 1968 and leading the company until his retirement as chairman in 2019. Billionaires embracing frugality and humility have become commonplace, but Premji placed integrity above all else—a value he imbibed from his father—and firmly believed in leading by example. At Wipro's Mumbai office, he often chose to walk up fourteen floors instead of taking the elevator—a habit formed during his time at Stanford. For Premji, climbing stairs became his own version of the Harvard Step Test. You Can Also Check: Bengaluru AQI | Weather in Bengaluru | Bank Holidays in Bengaluru | Public Holidays in Bengaluru Stanford Calling As a student at Stanford, Premji took up a part-time job on campus. He worked night shifts in the cafeteria, cleaning dustbins and plates. "Because one required a supplementation of the exchange my father was able to send me. It was an interesting experience because it gave me, for the first time, the dignity of labour. I never worked before…," he was quoted in The Story of Wipro: A Journey from 1945. It's an authoritative book published by Wipro, chronicling the company's evolution from a family-run manufacturing business to a global IT services firm. He found unexpected perks in his modest night shift as a telephone operator—minimal calls, a light workload, and just enough quiet time to study. "It wasn't too intense—the phone would barely ring ten to 12 times a night since only urgent and emergency calls could go through. So, if you had girlfriends calling up, you had to monitor those calls and cut them. The load was not heavy, and the salary was very little too. But you could study during that time. It was a luxury to be able to catch up with work," he was quoted in Wipro's official chronicle. Early Days Growing up in Mumbai, Premji loved playing sports, splitting his time between cricket fields and tennis courts at the Willingdon Club. When he returned to India, Premji took many calculated risks and set ambitious goals that captured the true spirit of entrepreneurship. One notable sceptic was a Wipro shareholder who predicted Premji would run Western India Vegetable Products into the ground. "But for me at that point, the statement was a challenge. I made up my mind to prove him wrong, and with each passing day, my resolve strengthened," he said in The Story of Wipro. It was a journey between two worlds. From the progressive campuses of California to the dusty, remote town of Amalner in Maharashtra, Premji navigated stark contrasts. The harsh summers made the transition even more difficult—temperatures often soared to 105 degrees Fahrenheit, power cuts were constant, and air conditioners were a luxury he couldn't afford. Undeterred, he set ambitious goals, benchmarking Western India Vegetable Products against industry giant Hindustan Unilever—a bold and unheard-of move in the 1960s. Until the late 1970s, Premji focused on leading Wipro's vanaspati (vegetable ghee) business and reinvented its flagship consumer brand, Sunflower. For the first time, he enlisted the services of advertising agency Hindustan Thompson Associates. Premji's quiet charm and conviction won them over, and the first Sunflower advertisement was rolled out in 1977. For Premji, the consumer business was "more fun"—building the Santoor and Sunflower brands. "We got an offer for Santoor from Unilever, which we turned down. When our market cap peaked (in 2000), I went back to Keki Dadiseth (former Chairman of Hindustan Unilever) and said I want to buy Unilever. And we were something like 70% of the value of Unilever globally—$65 billion here, and Unilever's market cap was $70 billion or $80 billion," he was quoted as saying in Wipro's chronicle. Putting Wipro on the Global IT Map Govt policy was a key reason for Premji's diversification beyond the vanaspati business, paving the way for Wipro's transformation. The IT business was a planned diversification. Asked to meet impossible conditions in 1977, many MNCs—including IBM—shut down operations in India. Public sector units held a strong presence; Electronics Corporation of India (ECIL), for example, was established in 1967. Ashok Narasimhan, a former Tata executive, began drafting the business plan for Wipro's new venture. IISc played a crucial role in launching Wipro's minicomputers in 1981. Premji incubated Wipro's electronics project at IISc, and by 1980, Narasimhan and Premji persuaded Sridhar Mitta of ECIL to build the team from scratch. Wipro Infotech's first independent office was established on Dickenson Road. "This really was the birth of our IT business—what is now the globally successful business by which Wipro is most known across the world. So, it would be quite accurate to say that the Wipro IT business was born in IISc," said Premji during IISc's convocation ceremony in 2019, as quoted on Connect IISc's website. The breakthrough sale of Wipro's first minicomputer Series 86 began in 1982 during a meeting with United Breweries promoter Vittal Mallya and his son Vijay Mallya. After lengthy discussions, Vijay Mallya requested two additional computers and planned to finalise the deal on a flight to New Delhi. The Rs 25 million deal marked a significant milestone for Wipro. Sun Microsystems was one of Wipro's top customers at the time, and its former president Ashok Soota built that relationship from the ground up. Wipro established a service centre called Orbit 1, marking its first venture into offshore services. "Wipro set up Orbit 1, an R&D centre to support Sun. It was the first time ever that Sun allowed support services to operate away from its own premises. It was pretty easy …(because), Wipro was a company we knew and trusted," Scott McNealy, cofounder of Sun, was quoted in the Story of Wipro. The initial and later bets paid off handsomely. By 2003-04, Wipro's IT business crossed $1 billion, and by 2011 it grew into a $7 billion enterprise. Wipro's joint venture with GE Healthcare drives cutting-edge medical equipment innovation. Back then, Chuck Pieper of GE Medical Systems said, "I had to find a team (in India) that could give us 80% of the functionality of Japan at 50% of its cost," he was quoted in The Story of Wipro. After vetting 10 businesses, he shortlisted two: Wipro and another company in the national capital. On the occasion of the GE team's visit to Bengaluru, Wipro leaders discovered that the rival Delhi team made a strong impression. Premji, a longtime observer of GE, intervened by writing to Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of GE, emphasising the importance of integrity at Wipro. Within hours, the GE team confirmed their visit. "We chose Wipro for a variety of reasons, but mainly because Pieper fell in love with Premji, with his quiet charm and engineering capability," said Welch, quoted in the Wipro chronicle. "Premji was a perfect partner." Giving It Back Premji is regarded as one of India's foremost philanthropists. In 2009-10, Premji transferred 9% of Wipro shares to a trust supporting his philanthropic entities at the Azim Premji Foundation. In 2010, Premji said, "I decided to give away most of my wealth to the foundation. My family got behind it fully. We have never been a greedy family," he wrote in The Story of Wipro. In 2019, the total value of the philanthropic endowment corpus was $21 billion, including 67% economic ownership of Wipro. Premji's "giving back" mission embodies the very spirit of Wipro—rooted in purpose, responsibility, and service.
India.com
7 days ago
- Business
- India.com
Once denied permission to stay at Wipro guesthouse, now serves as chairman of same company; he is...., father is...
India has produced several philanthropic leaders. It is impossible to mention the names of prominent donors without including Ratan Tata, Azim Premji, Sudha Murthy, Nita Ambani, Shiv Nadar, and Anand Mahindra. Azim Premji is a figure known better for his philanthropy work than his business acumen. Interestingly, Azim Premji has transferred his entire business to his son. The information technology giant, Wipro, established by Azim Premji, has now been passed down to his son, Rishad Premji. Who is Rishad Premji? What role does he hold in Wipro? Rishad Premji, like his father Azim, is recognized for his humility. He joined Wipro in 2007 and worked in several roles before becoming Executive Chairman in 2019 — including General Manager in the Banking and Financial Services business, Head of Investor and Government Relations, and Head of Strategy and M&A. He also holds directorships across various Azim Premji philanthropic entities. In 2014, Rishad Premji was recognized as a Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum due to his outstanding leadership and commitment to society. At present, Rishad Premji is the Executive Chairman of Wipro Limited, a consulting-led and AI-powered global information technology services company. He serves on the boards of Wipro Enterprises, Wipro-GE Healthcare, and the Azim Premji Foundation, which works to improve public school education, healthcare, and livelihoods across several Indian states. He also holds directorships across various Azim Premji philanthropic entities. According to the official website of Wipro, Rishad served as Chairman of NASSCOM, the trade body representing India's technology industry from 2018-19. Before Wipro, Rishad worked with Bain & Company in London and GE Capital in the US. Speaking about his educational qualification, Rishad has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in Economics from Wesleyan University. In 2005, Rishad got married to Aditi, his classmate at Harvard Business School, in a simple ceremony. Rishad and Aditi have two children, Rohan and Riya. Azim Premji was born on 24 July 1945 and Wipro was established shortly after on 29 December 1945. At the age of 21, after the death of his father, Azim Premji took over Wipro and built it into one of the biggest IT companies in the world and raised his children with the same principles he has gained from his father. A great example of his values was when Rishad Premji was in London and asked to stay at Wipro's guesthouse. Azim Premji said no, because it is a company property and not a place for personal use.
Time of India
7 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
We prefer to have idle pilots than grounded planes: Akasa CFO on losses, funding hiccups, Boeing
Akasa Air, which started in 2021 when the world was still reeling from Covid-19, is now a 30-plane airline controlling 5% of the domestic market share. It has, however, traversed this journey with some hiccups including related to excessive pilot hiring, international handicaps, heavy losses and slowed expansion last year besides dealing with delays in funding from Wipro's Azim Premji and a clutch of other investors. Akasa's CFO Ankur Goel took
