Azim Premji presented MMA-Amalgamations Award

Wipro chairman and philanthropist Azim Premji on Thursday exhorted “wealthy people” to allot part of their wealth to the public even as he contended that philanthropy is much more complex than running a business.

Delivering the 19th Anantharamakrishnan Memorial Lecture after being bestowed with the prestigious Madras Management Association-Amalgamations Business Leadership Award 2019 here, Azim Premji spoke about how his mother and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings helped him imbibe “humility” in his life.

The award, which had earlier been conferred to J R D Tata, N.R. Narayana Murthy, Aditya V Birla, and Ratan Tata among others, was presented to Azim Premji by A Krishnamoorthy, Chairman, Amalgamations Group.

After receiving the award, Azim Premji said in the past year where he has been involved more in philanthropy he has realized how much more complex it is than running a business.

“It (philanthropy) is much more subtle and decisions are much more difficult to arrive and the incentivization is not in money but the recognition that we give to the people,” the Wipro chairman said.

Azim Premji, who has pledged to give away half of his wealth to the people for education and other philanthropic activities, asked “very wealthy people” to donate.

“There is only so much a family or an individual can consume. Wealthy people should give (some of their wealth) to the people in the form of trusteeship. It is my mother and Mahatma Gandhi who influenced me to do what I did…they taught me what to do with my privilege of wealth,” Azim Premji said.

Speaking about education, the philanthropist and IT czar said government school teachers are being generalized as callous people which is not the case. “80 percent of them are devoted and 20 percent among them are outstanding. It is these teachers who attend workshops even on Sundays by traveling on their own. It is not for money or promotion, but to do their job better,” he said.

EoM