By Rajat Rai, IANS,
Aligarh : Wipro chairman Azim Premji has blamed the “irresponsible” attitude of the central government for rising inflation in India and said this phenomenon was usual in the months ahead of elections.
Premji, who was replying to queries of students at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Wednesday, said: “The economy of the country was more disciplined some time back, but with the arrival of elections, governments tend to become irresponsible.”
He did not elaborate, but indirectly criticised the populist polices announced by successive governments ahead of elections, which put more burden on the exchequer.
He was interacting with the students after attending the university’s 58th convocation here.
On questions about the success of Wipro, Premji said it was an opportunity encashed at the right time. “IBM made an exit from India in 1980 and there was none in the market to cater to the domestic information technology needs,” he said.
Sharing his succession plans in Wipro, Premji said everyone needed a successor. “We have a strong board of directors and meetings are held on regular basis for succession plans for higher management level.”
Answering a question on how Wipro contributed to nation building, Premji said his company worked for upliftment of primary education.
“We are working with over 800,000 schools across the country to make education more interactive and creative. The schools, depending on their financial strength, also bear a portion of the cost incurred. And as most of the schools we are working with, are in the rural areas, we have also employed NGOs,” he stated.
Wipro is also establishing a university in Bangalore for producing better teachers, Premji said. “An unskilled teacher cannot impart quality primary education and keeping this in mind we are aiming to train 4-5 million teachers per session.”
Premji brought smiles to the faces of students when he replied to a question on why Wipro was no longer among the top ten companies in India. “Others are smarter than us and we also appreciate it”, he said.