Dec. 1: The Azim Premji Foundation, which has been assigned Rs 600 crore since its inception in 2001 will now receive a whopping $2 billion that will help augment its work in primary school education and development in rural India.
In an unprecedented move witnessed by India Inc, Mr Azim Premji, the chairman of Wipro Ltd, who also chairs the Azim Premji Foundation, announced that he will transfer 213 million equity shares of Wipro Ltd, held by certain entities controlled by him to an irrevocable trust.
The transfer of the shares valued at approximately rs 8,846 crore or $2 billion at current market rates, will be effected by December 7, 2010. “Our teacher development programmes for government schools largely in rural India, has helped to improve the quality of education imparted to over 2.5 million children from standard 1 – 10, in over 25,000 government schools across the country. We’ve partnered with 16 state governments and today are focused on partnering with eight States — Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chattisgarh, Puducherry, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, based on the demand generated by these states. We train teachers and headmasters with the help of government officials at the district, block and cluster levels and are targeting to reach 6 million teachers who teach in 1.3 million government schools across the country” said Mr Dileep Ranjekar, CEO of the Azim Premji Foundation.
The Azim Premji University, approved by the Karnataka government and will be operational in Bengaluru by July 2011. It will for the first time in India offer Masters programmes in education, development studies and teacher’s education. “These courses are different from the regular BeD and MeD courses that train students to teach. Our courses, will empower students to train teachers, develop curriculum and contribute to the education policy,” said Mr Ranjekar.
The Azim Premji University is targeting to produce 3,500 high-calibre education and development professionals over the next 5 years. The trust will also fund five areas of development — child and maternal health, ecological sustenance, livelihood, nutrition and governance at the Panchayat level.