Azim Premji is India's Bill Gates - Forbes
Washington: India's software tycoon Azim Premji plans to set up a world-class university to train teachers who will fan out to the teacher training institutes in India's 600 districts. "It will be a world-class university with a large endowment," 64-year-old Premji told Forbes magazine noting, "Most of these institutes are a complete mess with the teachers leading the classes worse than the teachers that come to get trained." The proposed university to upgrade teaching methods will be the latest venture of Azim Premji Foundation that focuses on education, improving standards in India by training teachers and, among other things, funding model schools. Started nine years ago and funded solely by Premji, the foundation was given stock valued at "much more than" Rs 450 crore or roughly $101 million estimated by a newspaper. Much like Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Premji also plans to give away most of his money during his lifetime, the US business mag...