Premji took on the leadership of Wipro aged just 21, after his father's sudden death in 1966. He started with a simple vision -- to build an organisation based on values.

Under his leadership, the fledgling $2 million hydrogenated cooking fat company has grown to a $1.76 billion IT services organisation serving customers across the world. Wipro is today ranked among the top 100 technology companies globally by Business Week.

In 2001, Asiaweek magazine voted him among the 20 most powerful men in the world. He was ranked among the 50 richest people in the world from 2001 to 2003 by Forbes. In April 2004, he was rated among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.

In 2005, India honoured Premji with the Padma Bhusan.

Premji firmly believes that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things and the key to this is creating highly charged teams. He invests a significant amount of time as a faculty in Wipro's leadership development programmes.

How can the richest Indians help India? Tell us!