(Our Bureau, July 10) Azim Premji Foundation has committed ₹1,000 crore ($134 million) in grants to help combat the coronavirus pandemic. This is in addition to ₹1,125 crore ($150 million) that the IT major Wipro‘s philanthropic arm had committed in the early days of the pandemic last year. The additional grant will primarily be directed towards universal vaccination, Premji said.
“As our work as well as our situation evolved, we realized that focus on universal vaccination was just as important as other initiatives. So, we have added that as a key element of our COVID-19 relief strategy, and committed an additional ₹1,000 crore for it,” Premji said.
He added that comprehensive plans had been drawn up in the early days of the pandemic and grassroots teams were organized. These comprised 1,600 employees of the Azim Premji Foundation, 55,000 employees working for its partners, 10,000 teachers and 2,500 alumni of the Azim Premji University.
Incidentally, Premji has committed almost his entire wealth of over $80 billion to philanthropic activities. According to data from Hurun India, the billionaire – one of India’s top donors – gave away about $3 million per day in 2020.
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