Multinational IT services and consulting company
Wipro Limited is a global information technology, consulting, and business process services company headquartered in Bangalore. Founded in 1945 as Western India Vegetable Products Limited by Mohamed Premji, the company pivoted dramatically in the 1980s under his son Azim Premji's leadership, entering computing hardware and then IT services to become one of India's largest software exporters.
Wipro is listed on the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), the BSE, and cross-listed on the NYSE through American Depositary Shares under the ticker WIT. Its service portfolio spans digital transformation, cloud, AI and analytics, engineering R&D, and cybersecurity, with over 230,000 employees serving clients in 65 countries.
The company operates under a standard Indian public-limited-company structure: Wipro Limited is registered with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in Karnataka and governed by the Companies Act 2013, SEBI listing regulations, and RBI foreign-exchange rules.
Its founder family, through Azim Premji and the Azim Premji Trust, remains the controlling shareholder and one of India's most prominent philanthropic vehicles - the Trust has pledged the majority of the family's Wipro stake to education causes in India.
Wipro's corporate story spans 80 years and two distinct business models - a useful case study in Indian corporate reinvention and in how Indian-domiciled structures handle founder philanthropy at scale.
1. The pivot from vegetable oil to IT. Wipro's 1945 incorporation as a vegetable-oil processor is not a footnote - it explains the corporate registration number (CIN L32102KA1945PLC020800) that still carries the 1945 year.
Rather than dissolve the original entity and start fresh, the Premji family used Wipro Limited's existing listing and corporate infrastructure to enter a new industry in the 1980s. This is a pattern worth knowing: an existing MCA-registered public company is a valuable shell, and Indian corporate law allows significant business-line changes via shareholder resolution without re-incorporation.
2. Azim Premji Trust and the structure of Indian philanthropy. The majority of the Premji family's Wipro stake is held by the Azim Premji Trust, making it India's largest private philanthropy.
Under Indian law, a public charitable trust is a distinct structure from the US private foundation - it is governed by state trust acts (in Karnataka, the Karnataka Public Trusts Act) and by the Income Tax Act Sections 11 and 12 for tax-exempt status. The Trust holds Wipro shares, receives dividends, and deploys them through the Azim Premji Foundation into K-12 education initiatives.
The legal separation is clean: the Trust is not a Wipro subsidiary, and Wipro is not a Trust subsidiary.
3. ADR cross-listing without a parent flip. Like Infosys, Wipro listed on NYSE (initially on NASDAQ and then moved to NYSE in 2000) via American Depositary Shares, with each ADS representing one equity share. The parent Wipro Limited has always been an Indian public company.
This is the standard and, under current SEBI rules, the only realistic path for an Indian-origin public company to access US markets - the alternative is a fresh US-domiciled parent from the start, which creates its own set of trade-offs.
Wipro was incorporated in 1945 as Western India Vegetable Products Limited, a cooking-oil processor in Amalner, Maharashtra. Under Azim Premji from the 1980s the company pivoted into computing hardware and then IT services. The original MCA registration (carrying the 1945 year) was retained rather than dissolved, which is why the CIN starts with L32102KA1945.
The Azim Premji Trust is a separate public charitable trust under Karnataka law, not a Wipro subsidiary. It holds a majority of the Premji family's Wipro shares, receives dividends, and deploys those funds through the Azim Premji Foundation into education work. The legal separation preserves tax-exempt status under Income Tax Act Sections 11 and 12.
Wipro trades on NYSE under WIT via American Depositary Shares. Each ADS represents one equity share of Wipro Limited, with JPMorgan as depositary. The underlying equity remains Indian-domiciled and subject to SEBI and RBI rules; only the ADSs trade in the US.
Foreign institutional investors (FPIs) can buy Wipro equity directly on NSE or BSE subject to SEBI registration. Retail foreign investors typically access Wipro via the NYSE-listed ADRs (WIT), which trade in USD and settle through DTC.
