Wipro's Azim Premji: 'The global economy is not that badly broken. But we do need change Last year, Premji, who took over Wipro in the 1960s when it was a $2bn vegetable-oil company, was again on Time magazine's list of 100 most influential leaders. Through his philanthropy, he has been recognised as an extraordinary agent of social change. But here in Davos, Premji represents a big hope for Western leaders: that the surging Indian economy will help pull the West out of its turgid malaise. Sitting in a small meeting room with his fingertips together, Premji simply tells me he's travelled to Davos "because many of my clients are here." Of course, he says he is keenly aware of the global financial downturn but, unlike the majority of hand-wringing delegates, Premji seems extraordinarily unfazed by it. I point out that PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) published a survey on the first night of Davos claiming that 48pc of global chief executives were braced for a further decline in the world economy in 2012, with Indian bosses among those whose confidence had fallen the most sharply. "I don't share their pessimism," says Premji. And I don't see the pessimism in my clients. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, goaded European leaders in Davos by pointing out that the EU economy is predicted to inch forward by 0.6pc this year while India is expected to grow 7pc. For Premji even this is modest. "The Indian software business is expected to have grown by around 18pc by the year end in March," he says. We expect growth to be a little slower going forward but not much. The Indian software trade body Nasscom reckons Wipro will growth by at least 13pc or 14pc next year. Premji says that India is a "huge country and a large market to sell into," so he understands why Western leaders are looking to the subcontinent for growth. But he argues that India should not simply bail out the eurozone with cash. Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has proposed raising a further $500bn from members, including India, to help ease the debt crisis. Premji shakes his head. "What's in it for us?," he asks. No doubt Lagarde and others would argue that solving the debt crisis is in the interest of all businesses around the world. The downturn has prompted economic protectionism which has squeezed the activities of multinational companies such as Wipro. Contracts and visas are harder to extract from governments while there has also been a retrenchment in Indian outsourcing ventures. But Premji says the downturn has also provided big opportunities for Wipro. From investment banks to governments, every boss is trying to both cut costs and get ahead of the competition - which involves IT. "To keep the lights on in business you need IT," says Premji. Opportunities have been created, we have sent proactive proposals on how to save money and get a better service. Premji says the European market has always been "hard to penetrate," with the exception of the UK, because traditional companies such as Capgemini and IBM have been so dominant. With the changes and transformations in the eurozone, people have realised there is more value and flexibility in a multinational Indian company. He says the crisis has started to chip away at the highly restrictive labour laws across Europe, particularly in France and Germany. In some areas, particularly that of trying to get visas, Wipro has come up against tougher instances of economic protectionism - especially in America, where "there is huge bias for local companies" when it comes to pitching for contracts. Premji admits that there has been some retrenchment from Western companies in the call-centre area. Americans in particular were impatient with the Indian accent, he says. But Premji says he has solved part of the problem by shifting call centres to the Philippines. "The accent is easier to understand for Americans," he said. According to Premji, the UK is radically different because of its openness. "There is no bias to local companies," he says. Even for government contracts - which is very rare. The opportunities have improved with the Coalition, he says. Again, the huge economic pressures have helped because they are looking for the best deal and service. He adds: "We are actively bidding for a raft of contracts - education, community projects; some small, some big." Premji says that Wipro's chances have been boosted by a radical overhaul of the company's structure eight months ago. As well as bringing in a new chief executive, he says the company has invested in sales and marketing in particular. It is the latest reboot of the company Premji has led for four decades. Wipro was originally founded in 1945 when India was still under British rule. The then Western India Products Ltd produced sunflower oil for cooking and later soaps. When Premji joined, he shifted the focus to electronics, starting with the sale of lightbulbs and eventually becoming in 1985 the first company to market Indian-made computers. Wipro started developing and selling software before branching out into "offshore development centres," undertaking IT project for foreign companies more cheaply than they could do it themselves. Wipro now provides IT and engineering services and research and development solutions to 150 of the world's biggest companies. Aged 66, Premji is still at the helm of the company, though he is hounded by speculation that his eldest son, Rishad, may be being lined up as successor. He dismisses the latest speculation, saying that if Rishad was in line to take over, "he'd been in Davos too." Premji told one reporter last week that Rishad was working his way up the company ladder and that merit "counted more than inheritance." Meanwhile, Premji says he is preoccupied with the worries that are plaguing all bosses: how to get higher growth; how to manage foreign exchange in a turbulent world; and above all recruitment. But his big passion is education. In 2001 he set up a foundation designed to help spread elementary education among the poor in India, and founded a university too. In business, he is a keen supporter of graduate and intership schemes - to help students but also to help his company recruit good people. Now he is planning to bring his brand of educational philanthropy to Britain. Premji says that he met Mr Cameron when he travelled to India in 2010 on one of his first foreign trips as Prime Minister. They chatted about education and in particular the shortcomings of IT and engineering education. Since then, Premji has offered to start an intership programme for British students to be trained by Wipro in software, IT and engineering. Working in partnership with British universities, Wipro plans take students to India for a year to given them three months in a classroom and nine months practical work training. Premji says the programme should help Wipro hire staff in Britain rather than have to bring Indian labour over. It's a mirror of another programme, Misson10X, that Wipro set up in India with a view to helping students get "work fit" while expanding the company's choice of recruitment talent. The Mission was founded when Premji realised that the second and third-tier Indian universities were delivering engineering students who were ill equipped for the job. Their curriculum wasn't good enough and teachers weren't up to speed. So we designed a new curriculum for them and retrained the teachers. We gave them new text books to have and even to circulate to other colleges. He admits that while Wipro's brand has benefited among the students, the company has "had to compete for graduates alongside our competitors." But, even so, he says the programme has reaped huge benefits by increasing the talent pool by as much as a third. While leaders at Davos have discussed the possibility that big companies should be far more active in corporate social responsibility (CSR), Premji has been convinced of its worth for years. "The global economy is not that badly broken," he says. But we do need change. Businesses need to be more involved with philanthropic activities. He adds: "It's not just good businesses that can reap dividends from CSR." Azim Premji: CV Age: 66 Family: married with two sons Home town: Bangalore, India Education: Stanford University, California Wealth: $13bn Not many people know that... he drove a Ford Escort until recently upgrading to a Toyota Corolla