AZIM PREMJI IS THE WORLD'S RICHEST MUSLIM ENTREPRENEUR

India's software czar Azim Premji now has a new nomenclature -- the world's richest Muslim entrepreneur -- as he holds more wealth than any other Muslim outside the Persian Gulf royalty, a US media report said.

The financial daily Wall Street Journal has written a front-page profile on chairman of India's third largest IT exporter Wipro, saying Premji defies all the conventional wisdom about Islamic tycoons -- he does not hail from the Persian Gulf, did not make his money in petroleum, and does not wear his faith on his sleeve.

"Azim Premji has tapped India's abundant engineering talent to transform a family vegetable-oil firm, Wipro Ltd, into a technology and outsourcing giant. By serving Western manufacturers, airlines and utilities, the company has brought Premji a fortune of some $17 billion," the report said.

Premji is ahead of Russia's metal and real estate baron Suleman Kerimov ($14 billion), Kuwait's Nasser Kharafi ($11 billion), Saudi Arabia's Mohammad Amoudi ($8 billion), UAE's Abdulaziz Ghurair ($8 billion), Russia's Iskander Mahmudov ($8 billion), Saudi's Maan Sanea ($7.5 billion) and Saudi's Suleiman Rajhi ($7.5 billion) among the richest Muslim entrepreneurs in the world.

The daily quoted Premji in the report titled "How a Muslim Billionaire Thrives in Hindu India" as saying that such success shows globalization is turning into "two-way traffic" that can bring tangible benefits to developing countries.

"We have always seen ourselves as Indian. We've never seen ourselves as Hindus, or Muslims, or Christians or Buddhists," Premji told WSJ in an interview.

AZIZ PREM FINDS A PLACE AMONG THE TOP 30 ENTREPRENEURS IN THE WORLD FOR PUTTING WIPRO ON THE GLOBAL MAP

India's IT Mogul Azim Premji and Bangladesh's micro-credit leader and Nobel Prize winner Mohammad Yusuf are among the all time top 30 entrepreneurs identified by leading business magazine Business Week.

The modern heroes find themselves in the illustrious company of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, Benjamin Franklin, John D Rockefeller, Thomas Edison and Michael Dell.

The 30 selected include a Ming dynasty explorer Zheng He who lived 15th century to fast food titans to contemporary computer whizzes. Among them are Mayer Amschel Rothschild, John Jacob Astor, Milton Hershey, W K Kellogg, Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart Ray Kroc, Madam C J Walker, Estie Lauder, Ernest Gallo, Thomas Watson Sr, Thomas Watson Jr, Sam Walton Earl Graves Andy Grove, Ralph Lauren, Martha Stewart, Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bezos and and Pierre Omidyar.

The write up about Premji speaks of his business acumen which enabled him to turn the struggling business he inherited from his father at the age of 21 into a leading IT company in India and growing player in the global market. "He put a premium on quality and standards to build a reputation for Wipro that would reassure western companies hesitant to move services overseas, a move that helped him land clients like General Electric. Premji is also a hands-on manager involved in day-to-day operations, even making sales calls himself," it says.

Premji built, the magazine notes, became a leading IT company as the industry was growing and he expanded into the global market by adhering to rigorous standards.