Philanthropy of Poonawalla and Azim Premji

While Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla, yesterday tweeted the philanthropic gesture of his organisation, Wipro Founder Azim Premji has been doing his philanthropy silently.

On behalf of Serum Institute of India, the manufacturer of Covishield, the anti-COVID vaccine, Poonawalla tweeted yesterday, “As a philanthropic gesture on behalf of @SerumInstIndia, I hereby reduce the price to the states from Rs.400 to Rs.300 per dose, effective immediately; this will save thousands of crores of state funds going forward. This will enable more vaccinations and save countless lives.”

Covishield was supplied to the Government of India at Rs 200 per dose, when the vaccination drive started in the country.

The 7^th Edition of EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2020 shows Azim Premji in number one position for his philanthropy of Rs 7,904 crore, which came to Rs 22 crore per day. Shiv Nadar and family of HCL group and Mukesh Ambani and family of Reliance group occupy the second and third place in the list with a donation of Rs 795 crore and Rs 458 crore respectively.

Premji is known for his philanthropy, but does it silently. NDTV had reported on March 15, 2019 that Premji had committed 34 per cent of shares in his company to charity, which amounted to Rs 52,750 crore.

With that donation the value of his charity till that day was estimated to be at Rs 1,45,000 crore.