Azim Premji, 73, Industrialist & Philanthropist

In the 1990s, Wipro stood neck-and-neck with Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services as the triumvirate which defined India’s IT services’ global success story. The new millennium saw it being relegated to a distant third. And yet, Azim Premji, who with great foresight turned Wipro from edible oils to IT just as the computer age was entering India, continues to make a mark even now with his philanthropy. He is giving away unheard of and, for most of India, unimaginable amounts to social causes. This done by way of the Azim Premji Foundation. Of the 74 per cent he holds in Wipro, as much as 67 per cent’s earnings have been committed by him to the foundation. Early this year, when he announced a fresh lot, the total amount given away came to just under Rs 1.5 lakh crore, making him the only Indian to do philanthropy at the scale that Western businessmen like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet are doing.

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