New Delhi, December 4: In a latest achievement for India, Forbes Asia has announced Azim Premji as Asia's most generous philanthropist, giving away shares worth USD 7.6 billion in his tech firm Wipro to his education-centred Azim Premji Foundation. The billionaire -- retired in July as Wipro’s executive chairman after more than five decades -- is followed by Indonesia's Triputra Group founder Theodore Rachmat and Malaysia's Sunway Group chairman Jeffrey Cheah. Chinese philanthropist and Jack Ma Foundation founder Jack Ma has been placed in the fourth position this time.

According to the report, published by Forbes Asia in its official website, the list includes billionaires, entrepreneurs and celebrities across the Asia region. It is to be known that the former Wipro chairman's rank slipped from number 2 in 2018 to number 17 this year in the Forbes India Rich List 2019. As per to the details, Premji is the first Indian to sign the Giving Pledge and his total lifetime giving now stands at $21 billion, says Forbes India. PV Sindhu Only Indian Sportswoman in Forbes List of World’s Highest-Paid Female Athletes.

Apart from Premji, the other Indian who featured in Forbes Asia's most generous philanthropist list include Biotech entrepreneur Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and her husband John Shaw. Forbes mentions that they donated USD 7.5 million to the University of Glasgow in July. Also, Hexaware Technologies founder-chairman Atul Nishar made an appearance in the list too after he gave USD 1.5 million to a centre for leadership at the Avasara Academy -- a girl’s school near Mumbai that provides free education to underprivileged students.

Elaborating the criteria for selecting the people to mention them on the list, Forbes stated that they reviewed the monetary contributions of dozens of candidates, who gave their own money, not their company’s towards their philanthropic efforts. It further mentioned that the final selection is unranked and all are considered equally honoured on the list.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 04, 2019 09:25 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).