Sustainability is a practice and not curriculum: Azim Premji

Interview with the chairman of Wipro

Over the last few years, Wipro has increased focus on education and environment. Wipro Earthian award, having started in 2011 and engaged with nearly 50,000 institutes, recognises sustainability education across various schools and colleges in India. Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro in a conversation with Ayan Pramanik, holds forth on the state of education in the country and key to sustainable development. Edited excerpts

We see very fast changes in today’s time. What does this means for us as a society?

There are changes in society, changes in businesses, changes in global politics, change is just everywhere. Unless you learn to cope up with the change, you will fall behind, it requires a lot of effort, a lot of re-learning.

There was a time eagles used to come to our village. They stopped coming? How can they come back again?

You must grow trees for eagles to come back. They don’t normally sit on the ground, they sit on trees.

What is the story behind Earthian Awards... 

This is the sixth year of Wipro Earthian Awards. But we have not seen any redundancy in all these years. We saw the ability of the company to be able to engage with the society ….we are getting even more. So the roles you people have to play are absolutely critical. You have set an example to other people in the society. 

What are the changes that Wipro can bring to Arunachal Pradesh? 

A company like Wipro can try and hope to contribute a lot more in the places where it actually has operations. For example, we are trying to work Sarjapur Road area to try and figure out how this area can be more sustainable in terms of water conservation. 

I think for a company like Wipro it is not so natural for us to be able to expand such work across the country, but at the same time we deeply recognise the importance of being able to contribute whether it is Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman or Jammu & Kashmir…. 

What is your imagination on rural development? 

Rural development has to be at the grassroots. It has to involve the local population. It cannot be a thirst from the top. If you are in a hilly area, it depends upon what are the fruits you can get from the hilly area. 

If you are in framland which is deprived of water...there are lot of goods NGOs that we are financing. These NGOs work with the farmers to extend the cropping pattern and enable them to sell their produce at a better price. So it varies from once rural area to another. The most fundamental thing it requires is the local community participation in the development. 

Who and what inspired you to start Wipro?

Wipro was started by my father Hasham Premji. I think where I contributed was to expand the existing product range and diversification. What inspired me was a mission to do better than what we were doing in the past and grow much faster than how we grew in the past. 

How do you strike a balance between high-power consumption in manufacturing or processing and sustainability?

There is technology to enable much less power consumption. You can do a lot of innovation in a manufacturing line that helps in reducing power consumption. That eventually generates more profit. I do not agree with the fact that respecting sustainability objectives raises costs on certain parameters of production.

Even though sustainability is not part of the curriculum, children from villages are much more aware of sustainability compared to their urban counterparts who read about it in textbooks. Why so?

Sustainability is a practice and not curriculum. I think if people who are within the environment and active are able to get to know the system; whereas students who only learn about theories in urban areas are disconnected from life. The best of schools are encouraging students to get involved in activities of saving energy, conserving water, power etc.

How are students of Azim premji University different from others? 

The university has a social purpose. The type of students we recruit are typically from the smaller towns and villages. Many of the students for Masters Courses are experienced and majority of them are on scholarships. 

We also encourage them to work in the villages on social projects during the breaks. Such exposure for 6-7 weeks a year will give them a good feel of grassroot.