COVID-19: Old Report Shared as Azim Premji Donating 50,000 Cr

The donation actually came in March 2019 when the business tycoon had donated Rs 52,750 crores to charity.

No, Azim Premji did not donate Rs 50,000 crores towards coronavirus relief efforts.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

CLAIM

Amid the rising tensions over the novel coronavirus, a message is being circulated widely on social media claiming that Indian business tycoon and chairman of Wipro, Azim Premji, has donated Rs 50,000 crores to fight COVID-19.

This comes at a time when COVID-19 has claimed 32 lives and has infected over 1,200 people in India.

A Twitter user named Ashok Swain shared a news report by NDTV that claimed Azim Premji donated Rs 50,000 crores and further wrote, “Why not 'Hindu' billionaires like Ambani and Adani?”

You can find an archived version of the tweet here.(Source: Twitter screengrab)

The news was also shared by others, including journalist Faye D’Souza.

(Source: Twitter screengrab)

You can find an archived version of the tweet here.(Source: Twitter screengrab)

A Facebook user shared the same claim as well.

You can find an archived version of the post here.(Source: Facebook)

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OLD NEWS ARTICLE SHARED

On clicking on the NDTV article shared by Twitter users, we found that it was dated 15 March 2019. The article mentions that Azim Premji had donated Rs 50,000 crores to charity which took the total value of his philanthropic donation to Rs 1,45,000 crores.

(Source: NDTV)

Further in a statement to CNBC-TV18, Wipro clarified that the donation was made in March last year.

Evidently, an old philanthropic donation by Azim Premji is being shared with false claims that it has been made during the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

You can read all our fact-check stories on coronavirus here.

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