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Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro, donated 213 million shares which are worth a staggering $ 2 billion or Rs 8846 crores to  Azim Premji Foundation, in the largest act of Philanthropy by an Indian. The transfer will take place on December 7, 2010. The donation will fund the educational activities of Azim Premji Foundation which works for school education mainly in rural India.Azim Premji has previously donated Rs 700 crore to the Foundation.

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In a statement, Premji said, “The endowment trust will be set up with funds raised by transferring 213 million equity shares of mine in Wipro Limited, which have a current market value of Rs.8,846 crore”. The statement further sates, “The trust will utilize the endowment to fund various social, not-for-profit initiatives, which are expected to scale significantly over the next few years”.

Azim Premji Foundation was formed in 2001 and has set up over 25,000 schools with over 2.5 million students all over India. It has also worked extensively in six districts, two in Uttarakhand, two in Rajasthan and two in Karnataka.

The money will be transferred on 7 December and Wipro’s fomer strategy Chief K R Lakshminarayana will be the Chief endowment officer. The $ 2 billion donation is expected to generate atleast a return of $160-250 million annually which will be used to run Azim Premji Foundation initiatives.

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