Indian muslim billionaire to give most of his wealth to charity

[Bang Galore]

If he gave away a couple billion you could call it a stunt, but I don't think giving away almost all your wealth can be labelled a mere stunt!

While I don't question his intention I am not sure it will all be that easy to do that. Premji's wealth is primarily in stock. There is only so much you can give away without the danger of losing control of the company. Unlike Bill Gates, I believe that Premji wants to keep ownership within his family, he can only do that if he holds enough stock.

The only way he could possibly do what he wants would be to structure ownership like that of TATA Sons, the controlling arm of the TATA group. A huge 66% of Tata Sons are held by charities which means that a lot of the profit earned by the TATA group goes to good causes. The voting rights of the charities are vested with the chairman of the TATA group, in this case with Ratan Tata. Something similar might be the way to go.

 

[kallol]

Let us not bring religion into every aspect of human life. Religions have already divided the human race into small bits and have been cause for many hatred, wars, etc.

Let us acknowledge and appreciate the goodness in human. As Indian we are proud of another Indian achievement. As human we rejoice the achievement of humanity.

 

[Gin ka Pakistan]

Best charity is scholarship to students. I hope he will think about it too.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Really you have to applaud the man's commitment to helping other human beings and his spirt and ambition

We need more like him in Pakistan as well

 

[desiman]

i actually back KillBill on his statements, Wipro is known to be very tough on its employees and has a relatively high turnover rate when it comes to employees. Such acts of donation are more of a publicity stunt than real charity. It helps built trust with people and get huge tax credits. I wont be surprised that such donations make no big difference to his real wealth which im sure is hidden from the real world. This is how business works and its nothing new.

 

[KillBill]

People who start to idolize him, I want to ask one thing, How closely do you know him? Or are you being rude to me because I am calling a spade a spade?

Someone here said that people earning in lakhs can not be called exploited, well is everything compared in terms of absolute number then definitely its not. Then would you call PAKFA cheaper or costlier? would you compare that with someones wage or would you compare it with Rafael ?

Again some more facts about him,

People know he has hired some normal bachelor degree students ( BSC BCOM etc) and make them do MS from BITS pilani. But do you also know that they are expected to work for all 5 days in a project like anyother engineer, on saturdays they have to attend classes and each 3months they will have exams. Do you know how much they are paid in Bangalore? 6 to 8 k last year, 10k this year. Now making someone work for all 5 days a week like a normal engineer and paying such meager amount is called exploitation.

This year he is starting a new college ( Azim premji university) where students will get free education. Now the media covers it as a act of charity and TOI was all ga ga over him. But do you guys know the story behind the scene? 12th std students from 3rd tier cities like Indore, raipur, ranchi etc will picked and will be given free education. In return they have to work for 4 days a week full time. Exploitation or charity?

 

[Doom]

Best charity is scholarship to students. I hope he will think about it too.

he is already doing it apart from it he is starting many ventures in education.


Azim Premji University to become operational in 24 months

23 Apr 2010, 2101 hrs IST,PTI
BANGALORE: The Azim Premji University, a not-for-profit institute, will be operational in 24 months, Wipro Chairman, Azim Premji said on Friday.

"We are in the final process of getting land and finalising an architect", Premji, whose dream project was cleared by the Karnataka government, said.

The institute would train teachers, government functionaries and development officers, he said.

The university would initially offer Masters degree and add a Bachelor's degree and Phd later, he said.

"The aim is to build teachers", he said. "We have a dearth of well trained teachers", he said adding that well trained teachers were found to profoundly influence the quality of teaching and student learning.

To a question on nature of investment into the project, he said it is going to be "substantial". There is a large endowment and funding for the project.

There were also plans to tie up with five international universities from Europe and US for technology transfer.

"We have identified the universities and professors", he said.

Azim Premji University to become operational in 24 months-Education-Services-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

 

[rubyjackass]

Gates said. "It's clear the best place to capture a fortune for philanthropy is in the generation it was first earned...If you don't get it right at the beginning, if you get this sort of dynastic thinking under way, then it is very difficult."

So very true. But very few people in India today are self-made. Most get it from their fathers, grand pas and some even from their great grand pa's dowry.

Well things look very nice this way but he has earned this money by frugality and by exploiting his employees.

I have no respect for this man as I know how I myself was exploited when I was working for his company. Complete exploitation and nothing else.

Feel free to disagree.

By your standards all IT companies exploit people dude. It is true that Premji is known for 'frugality'. But the word cannot be stretched to exploitation. Look at it this way. There are still people dying for a job in Wipro. How many jobs did he create in India? There are people willing to work for even less. and there are lacs of jobless IT students.

Furthermore frugality is a personal virtue. Do you think Mallya is paying 50% more to his employees over the market rate? So do not confuse it with professional conduct of a person. Such rumors are mostly influenced by a disbelief such a rich man can live a relatively simpler life. If Gandhi lived today, he would be near the doorsteps of some temple. Because people simply will not want to believe such a virtuous man lived.

 

[garibnawaz]

Mr.Premji is an Ahmediya and Ahmediya's are considered as Non Muslims as per law in Pakistan.

So from a Pakistani point of view he is a non muslim.

GB

 

[EjazR]

^^Well he actually does not flaunt his religion in public. He is of Gujrati background and is shia of the isna ashari sect that is well known---at least his father did. However, he is well respected across all muslim school of thoughts and outside as well.

Gujratis have always been a very enterprising community and that applies to Gujrati muslims like Azim Premji as well.

But this is still besides the point. Lets appreciate what is done and hope other rich people irrespective of religion are inspired by his actions.

 

[garibnawaz]

^^Well he actually does not flaunt his religion in public. He is of Gujrati background and is shia of the isna ashari sect that is well known---at least his father did. However, he is well respected across all muslim school of thoughts and outside as well.

Gujratis have always been a very enterprising community and that applies to Gujrati muslims like Azim Premji as well.

For the records

I am a Gujrati Muslim.

Bohra/Bohri and hence Shia.

But this is still besides the point. Lets appreciate what is done and hope other rich people irrespective of religion are inspired by his actions.

Agreed.

I was referring to double standards of some people.

GB

 

[karan.1970]

I am anyway of the opinion that his religion has no bearing on this act of his..So lets keep it out of the discussion.

 

[garibnawaz]

I am anyway of the opinion that his religion has no bearing on this act of his..So lets keep it out of the discussion.

It was the subject

Re: Indian muslim billionaire to give most of his wealth to charity

to begin with.

There was no need for that muslim tag.

1) There are many other muslim billionaires in India who has done a lot just like Mr.Premji.
2) Many business families like TATA,Amabani's, birla's have contributed to people of India.

These above people have never done it on the basis of religion neither gave a damn if their charity or good work is reaching to a particular religion.

For them it was just people of India. Their people.

GB

 

[Frankenstein]

He and Warren Buffet has proven themselves to be the best

 

[kugga]

If really wants to do charity why he is doing it publically??
After reading all the posts on the topic I've concluded that may be the guy who's saying that he had worked in prem ji's company is quite right.

But still we cannot comment on what he thinks or what are his intensions...... he is responsible for his acts...
we should all appreciate if he's doing something good even if he's doing it for publicity because good remains good no matter how you do it..