Premji Foundation enters healthcare

The foundation will soon set up primary healthcare clinics in some of India’s most backward towns

IndiGlobal Bureau

After making a huge impact in education sector, Azim Premji Foundation is to make a similar impression in the health sector. In a two-pronged approach, the foundation would set up health clinics in the most backward regions and follow it up by establishing multi-specialty hospitals and a medical university.

It may be noted that the foundation was set up in 2001 and all these years focused on improving the teaching and learning outcomes in the education arena. The plan is then (in 2-3 years) to have hospitals and then a medical university. The foundation is the world’s fifth-largest private endowment with a $38 billion corpus.

Anurag Behar, chief executive officer, Azim Premji Foundation said, “Our focus will be on improving the health of underserved communities across geographies. Health is a public good and, therefore, strengthening public health systems will be central to our approach. In addition, where there are gaps, we will address those, both by establishing our institutions and by working with civil society organizations. Health education and research will also emerge as critical areas of work”

Presently, healthcare wing is overseen by Anand Swaminathan and run by Azim Premji Foundation for Development (APFD), an operating entity housing Azim Premji Foundation and Azim Premji University.

During the pandemic, one of the IT facilities of Wipro in Pune was converted into a 450-bed intermediary care covid-19 hospital before giving it to the state government to manage. Post the pandemic, the Premji Foundation has been mulling to enter the healthcare space informed a source.