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History of Wipro Ltd.

1941

- 8,000 shares subscribed for by directors, etc. 9,000 shares offered at par to public in February-March 1946.

1945

- The Comp. was Incorporated on 29th December, at Mumbai. The Company Manufacture vegetable ghee, vanaspati, refined oils including salad oil, soap, waxs & tin containers for packing, crushing & oil milling trading in oils & oilseeds & manufacture of fluid power products. The Products trade names were 'Kisan', 'Sunflower' and 'Camel'.

1971

- 5,667 Bonus shares issued in prop. 1:3.

1977

- The name of Comp. was changed from Western India Vegetable Products Ltd., to Wipro Products Ltd., with effect from 7th June. It was again changed to Wipro Ltd., with effect from 28th April, 1984.

1980

- 22,667 Bonus shares issued in prop. 1:1.

- Diversifies into information technology.

1982

- Name again changed from Wipro Products Limited to Wipro Limited.

1983

- The Comp. undertook to establish manufacturing facilities at Tumkur, for manufacturing of hydraulic tipping systems.

1984

- 45,334 Bonus shares issued in prop. 1:1. 1,500 shares issued at par to employees of Comp. & its subsidiaries.

1986

- Equity share subdivided, 9,21,680 Bonus equity shares of Rs. 10 each then issued in prop. 1:1.

1987

- `Ralak' a tulsi based family soap & `Wipro Jasmine' a toilet soap was launched.

1988

- The Comp. diversified the product line into heavy duty industrial cylinders & mobile hydraulic cylinders.

1989

- The Comp. set up a joint venture Comp. with General Electric of U.S.A., in the name of Wipro GE Medical Systems Pvt. Ltd., for the manufacture, sale & service of diagnostic & imaging products. The Joint Venture has also an OEM sourcing arrangement with Elpro International Ltd., for locally made x-ray products. In 1990, the joint venture became a subsidiary of Company.

- 18,43,360 Bonus shares issued in prop. 1:1.

1990

- 'Santoor' talcum powder, a brand extension & 'Wipro Baby Soft' were launched in the market.

- The Comp. established a relationship with Eaton Corporation, U.S.A. for marketing of hydraulic products in India.

1991

- Tipping systems were launched. The Comp. undertook to set up a high technology plant & R&D Centre at Aurangabad with an investment of Rs 40 crores. The product range was to include incandescent lamps, linear & circular fluorescent lamps, accessories & luminaries.

- Eaton Hydraulic products were launched. The Comp. set up a new Unit 'Wipro Financial Services Ltd.', for serving customers with capital resources, expertise & ideas to help solve their financial needs.

- The Comp. launched baby soft toiletries viz. soap, powder and oilbased on natural ingredients of lanolin, olive, milk & almonds. Feeding bottles followed in 1994.

- The Comp. partnering with world leaders markets & supports a wide range of equipment & consumables for medical, diagnostic and Bio-analytical markets.

1992

- The Computed tomography, ultra sound & specialised x-ray systems were launched. It added to itself, products from Becton Dickinson Bio-Rad Labs & Serono Diagnostics with a view to becoming a single comprehensive source for bio-research & diagnostic instruments.

- The Wipro Fluid Power division has developed expertise to offer standard hydraulic cylinders for construction equipment & truck tipping systems. The Comp. had introduced the State-of-the-art cartridge valves from Sun Hydraulics, USA for Indian market. A second manufacturing unit has been set up at Hindpurto augment capacity.

- The Comp. issued 2,00,000-18.5% secured redeemable non-convertible debentures of Rs 100 each on private placement basis. These are redeemable in three equal annual instalments commencing on 23rd March, 1998 & 5% premium payable on redemption.

- The Comp. issued 19% non-convertible debentures of Rs 500,000,000 on private placement basis. These are redeemable on 9th September, 1994.

- Wipro Infotech Ltd., Wipro Systems Ltd., Wipro Investment Ltd., Inlec Investment Ltd., & Wipro GE Medical Systems Pvt. Ltd., are subsidiaries of Company.

- 36,86,720 Bonus shares issued in prop. 1:1. -Wipro is providing services of IT and IS consulting for E-business Transformation, Electric Commerce, Web Enabling, ERP, Data Warehousing, Customer Relationship Management. 1993

- 'Wipro Shikakai Herbal Power' a hair care product based on a judicious mix of seven herbs was launched during the year.

- The Comp. developed various cylinders for critical applications such as excavators, backhole loaders, wheel loaders etc.

- The Comp. proposed to enter into a financial joint venture with Beckman Instruments Incorporated, U.S.A., for manufacture of bio-analytical instruments [diagnostic instruments & reagentss] in India & to develop software & hardware for international use by Beckman. Necessary steps were undertaken to implement the letter of intent for manufacture of analytical instruments. Manufacturing facilities were being established in Gurgaon, Haryana & business operations pertaining to the facilities were to be carried out from Delhi.

- Wipro BioMed proposed to add a Medical division to offer a comprehensive range of products in cardiology & patient monitoring from PPG Hellige.

1994

-Wipro has set up an overseas design centre, Odyssey 21 for undertaking projects & product developments in advanced technologies for overseas clients. Five of Wipro manufacturing & development facilities secured the ISO 9001 certification during 1994-95. Wipro Infotech and Wipro Systems were amalgamated with Wipro in Apr.'94.

1995

- A second manufacturing facility was commissioned at Hindupur in A.P. where latest technology such as horizontal induction hardening, friction welding, high productivity skiving & roller burnishing has been installed.

- The Comp. developed portable ultra sound scanner logiq X 100, having a range of clinical applications. The Comp. introduced olive oil enriched baby powder during the year.

- 76,38,545 Bonus equity shares issued in prop. 1:1. 2,65,105 No. of equity shares of Rs 10 each allotted to existing shareholders of Wipro Infotech Ltd., & Wipro Systems Ltd., respectively.

1996

- Registered office of Wipro shifted from Mumbai to Bangalore.

1997

- The Comp. has been providing design & development services to the technology sector. A MOU was signed with Nenoki AG, Switzerland for technical know-how.

1998

- Wipro Consumer Care Segment of Comp. has been manufacturing Santoor, a sandal & turmeric based safe soap for skin with natural ingredients. The Wipro Consumer Care division relaunched milk & rose toilet soap in north India. Wipro Shikakai was extended to Wipro herbal, India first anti dandruff soap. Wipro Camel brand is a leader catering to the commercial biscuit manufacturers & bakeries.

- 305,54,180 bonus shares issued in proportion 2:1.

1999

- Wipro Net formed. Wipro acquires Wipro Acer.

- WIPRO Peripherals launched on Friday the Wipro Proline range, which is the first bilingual Line Matrix Printers [LMPss] that can simultaneously print in English & Devnagri [Hindis]. The Bangalore-based Comp. has also set up a language lab for research and development of products which support other regional languages.

- Wipro SuperGenius personal computers [PCss] have become the only Indian PC range to obtain the US-based National Software Testing Laboratory [NSTLs] Certification for Year 2000 [Y2Ks] compliance. The operating systems of Wipro SuperGenius PCs are also Y2K compliant.

- Wipro Ltd & Acer Computer International Ltd of Singapore on Wednesday announced the end of their joint venture operations in the country.

- Wipro Ltd, the Bangalore-based infotech major, will be the first company in Corporate India to split its part value shares of Rs 10 each.

- Currently, Wipro share capital is Rs 45.83 crore, comprising 45.83m shares of face value of Rs 10 each. The sub-division of shares will be subject to Sebi guidelines, said a notice issued by company to the BSE.

- Wipro is also proposing to set up a new employee stock option plan for its permanent employees. Yet another resolution the Comp. takes up at its AGM is to split the existing Rs 10 equity shares of Wipro into five each of Rs 2 face value.

- Wipro Limited has joined hands with a global telecom major KPN [Royal Dutch telecoms] to form a joint venture Comp. to provide internet services in India.

- Wipro would control the majority stake of 55 per cent while the remaining will be with KPN. The joint venture Comp. -- Wipro Net Limited -- also intends to divest a part of its equity to the Indian public within three years.

- Wipro Ltd is picking up a 4.85 per cent equity stake in the Chennai-based Kaashyap Radiant Systems Ltd [KRSLs]. For the purpose, Wipro is subscribing to 5 lakh equity shares of KRSL with an investment of Rs 50 lakh.

- Out of public issue, 3.2 lakh shares of Rs 10 each are reserved to the employees of KRSL & 2.6 lakh equity shares to NRIs/OCBs/FIIs, while the rest is being set aside for public.

2000

- The Comp. proposes to issue ADR/GDR linked stock options to employees of company, its subsidiaries & associates up to an amount not exceeding $150 millions.

- The Comp. has set up a new division to capitalise on the emerging opportunities in the internet arena.

- The Comp. has entered into a tie-up with Vignette Corp of US to provide co-developed solutions for online businesses, according to a news release from Wipro.

- Wipro technologies, has become a global implementation alliance partner of Mercator software, Inc. [Nasdaq MCTRs], an e-business transformation company.

- Wipro has become the second largest Comp. in terms of market capitalisation on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

- The Comp. for fourth year has won the top award of STPI for software exports for year 1999-2000.

- The Comp. has been awarded first prize, at national level, for outstanding export performance during 1999-2000 from the Software Technology Parks of India.

- The Comp. has launched solutions for convergent networks called Wipro OSS Smart & Wipro WAP Smart targeted at Internet & telecom solution providers.

- Wipro Peripherals, the division of Wipro, has entered into a strategic business partnership with Kilburn Reprographics to consolidate its position in the government & PSUs.

- Microsoft has decided to tie up with Indian software majors like Wipro to outsource some part of software development work for the .Net as well as other projects.

- The Peripherals Division of Wipro Infotech will be hived off as a separate entity, largely owned by employees led by Mr. Ram N Agarwal.

- Wipro limited has proposed a new ESOP plan [WESOPs] 2000s] as its earlier WESOP 1999 is expected to be exhausted over the next few months.

- Wipro Ltd had tied-up with Japan telecoms technology firm Bussan Systems Integration Co. to develop BSI requirement of mobile telecoms technologies.

- Wipro Baby Soft, the bay care brand of Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting, has declared six babies `Wipro Baby Soft Millennium Babies' and presented them with an education bond worth Rs 1 lakh & a gift hamper.

- Investment Information & Credit Rating Agency Ltd has reaffirmed the `A1+' rating assigned to the Rs. 100-crore commercial paper programme of Wipro Ltd.

- The Comp. has bagged the PC Quest User Choice Awards, 2000, in the Home ahd Office OC Segment.

- The Comp. set up multiple digital exchanges for IT marketplace.

- Wipro Corporation, has tied up with City based merchant bankers BNK group for setting up the first call centre in eastern India.

- The Indian unit of US-based Citrix Systems Inc, a maker of network software, that it had tied up with Wipro Ltd to market its software in India.

- Wipro Net, the internet services provider arm of Wipro Corporation, has set up three nodes in Kochi, Coimbatore & Jamshedpur, thereby expanding its presence to 11 cities in the country.

- Wipro Ltd will make an American Depository Receipts issue of $150-$300 million.

- Infotech major Wipro launched 01Markets.com, a portal for IT industry. - The Comp. has informed that it has file a registered statement with Securities & Exchange Commission covering a proposed public offer of 27,50,000 Amrican Depository Shares, representing 27,50,000 equity shares [excluding the underwriters' option to purchase an additional 4,12,500 American Depository Shares representng 4,12,500 equity shares to cover overallotments, if anys].

- Wipro limited has acquired two properties from Cidco in Navi Mumbai to set up state-of-the-art software development facilities.

- Wipro limited is setting up software development facilities in Navi Mumbai.

- Wipro Ltd has tied-up with the US-based Software Technologies Corporation [STCs], to market STC software services.

- 01markets, the neutral B2B digital marketplace of Wipro, was launched in Bangalore .

- Wipro ISP, NetKracker, has tied up with a L&T finance portal LTtrade.com to offer financial services on the Net to the retail segment.

- Arun Thiagarajan, putting an end to a two year controversial carrer as vice chairman of Wipro & chief executive officer of Wipro Infotech, has moved to the India Operations of Hewlett-Packard [HPs] as president.

- Wipro has entered into an agreement with ICICI Venture Fund Management Compeny limited for an investment of Rs 30 crore or 51 per cent equity interest in Net Kracker limited by ICICI.

- Infotech major Wipro Ltd has acquired a 45 per cent stake in the Internet service provider Wipro Net Ltd, from Dutch telecommunications operator KPN Telecom at Rs 108.8 crore.

2001

- Wipro Infotech spun off its peripherals services division into a new legal entity, Wipro e-Peripherals Sep 2000. In Feb. 2001, Wipro became the first software technology & services Comp. in India to be certified for ISO 14001 certification for complying with the international standards for Environmental Management System [EMSs] in three major software development & technology centres in Bangalore.

- The Comp. has been awarded the ISO 9002 certification for Network Management, Service Implementation & Customer Relationship Management.

- Mr. Vivek Paul, the Vice Chairman of Comp. & Wipro Technologies, has been elected as Director to the Board of the California Chamber of Commerce for a three-year term with effect from January 1.

- 01markets.com, the digital market place for IT products & services promoted by Wipro has launched an online trade fair -- 01 Web fair to offer products including servers, & bundled software at rock bottom prices.

- Wipro Infotech Software Enterprises division has won the 'Top Partner of Year 2000' award for news business performance at the second iPlanet Asia Pacific Partner Summit at Phuket, Thailand.

- Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting Group has entered the market of Compact Fluorescent Lamps, with the launch of range of CFL, under the brand name of Wipro Smartlite.

- Wipro Net has enterisng into a strategic tie up with the US-based Speedera Networks Inc.

- Wipro chairman Azim Premji has pledged 2.06 million equity shares of Wipro in favour of ICICI in the option agreement involving Wipro Net, according to the company annual report for financial 2001.

- Indian hardware vendors such as Wipro & HCL have signed up with Intel for launch of servers with Intel Itanium processor. The Itanium processor follows a parallel instruction computing, which significantly boosts performance, said Mr Narendra Bhandari, general manager, Internet solutions group, Intel, in a meeting with presspersons.

- Wipro ePeripherals, the largest employee-owned Comp. in the country, on August 16 announced its tieup with the US-based Network Appliance, to offer storage solutions & content delivery solutions in India.

- Technologies, Wipro Ltd has been consolidating its communications-oriented business. During FY2000-01, its business in communications grew to Rs 1,044.61 crore from a base of Rs 586.13 crore in 1999-00.

- Wipro Net has been amalgamated with the Comp. with effect from Ist April 2001 which will enable it to synergise the customer offerings under one management & enable it to offer the specialized telecom skills available within both the companies.

2002

- Wipro Ltd has informed that the Mr. Hamir K Vissanji, the Director, has resigned from the Board with effect from January 15, 2002.

- The Comp. has strong software engineering processes and also achieved ISO 9000 certification. Wipro is the first software Comp. to get SEI Level 5 and also implemented Six Sigma TQM practices to software projects and support functions.

- The Comp. launched its German operations based out of Frankfurt which will address the requirements of enterprise for bussiness applications as well as R&D outsourcing requirements of technology companies.

-Wipro decided to acquire 66% stake in Spectramind e-services the $93 million deal on July 31, 2002. Post-deal, Wipro stake in the Comp. was around 90 per cent.

-Wipro Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors vide circular resolution effective August 01, 2002 resolved to issue & allot 337 equity shares of Rs 2 each pursuant to exercise of stock options by eligible employees.

-P S Pai retires from Whole-time Directorship of Wipro.

2003

- Wipro Ltd today [January 31, 2003s] announced the appointment of T K Kurien as President of Wipro HealthScience, the new business segment formed in April 2002 to address the market opportunities in Healthcare & Life Science IT. T K Kurien will report into Vivek Paul, Vice Chairman. Suresh Vaswani, 42, President - Wipro Infotech, our India, Asia Pac & Middle East IT Business, will head the Telecom and Internet Service Provider [TISPs] Vertical in Wipro Technologies, reporting to Vivek Paul, in addition to his existing responsibilities. Suresh Vaswani will continue to report to Azim Premji, Chairman, for Wipro Infotech business.

- Ehosting DataFort of Dubai & Wipro Ltd have signed a memorandum of understanding to offer disaster recovery solutions. eHosting DataFort, a subsidiary of Dubai Technology, E-commerce & Media Free Zone [TECOMs], is a leading regional provider of managed hosting, security & disaster recovery services, according to a statement from Wipro, made available to Reporters. Wipro & eHosting DataFort will together offer comprehensive disaster recovery solutions, covering disaster recovery planning, implementation & management to their customers.

- Wipro increases stake to 100% in Wipro Spectramind Services

- Wipro is fastest wealth creator for 5 years, reveals study

- Wipro Spectramind bags $10-m BPO order from Microsoft

- Wipro e-procurement arm, 01 Markets has unveiled a web-tendering solution for Indian market

- Comp. launches its own laptops with Intel Centrino mobile processor

- Chairman Azim Premji, with a networth of $5.9 billion, has made it to the Forbes list of ten most powerful billionaires in the world

- Enters into a definitive agreement to acquire NerveWire Inc,, a Newton, Massachusetts based Business & IT Consulting Comp. serving financial services clients, for approximately $ 18.7 million in cash

- Wipro Spectramind tops annual ranking of third-party call centre and BPO companies for 2002-03

- Enters into an exclusive agreement with the owners of Chandrika for marketing of their soap in select states in India

- Wipro Infotech, the IT arm of Wipro Ltd., has tied up with US-based Sistina Software Inc. to provide services to customers of Sistina Software Inc. in India, Asia Pacific & West Asia

- Oriental Bank of Commerce chooses Wipro for its Centralized Banking Solution project

- Fortune magazine lists the 25 most powerful business leaders outside US where Mr.Azim Premji, CEO Wipro has been ranked 17th in the list

- Wipro01 Markets, the Procurement Service Provider, bags first overseas customer [Almana Group of Hospitals, one of largest heathcare groups in Middle-Easts]

- Enters into an alliance with Witness Systems, the US based leading provider of contact centre performance optimisation solutions, to market & integrate the complete range of Witness Systems' eQuality browser based solutions to contact centres in India

- Wipro Healthcare & Life Science Services inks pact with Malaysian Comp. to float a healthcare informatics systems in Malaka

-Alloted 655 equity shares of Rs. 2/- each pursuant to exercise of stock options by eligible employees.

-Wipro Infotech makes entry into Bahrain by appointing Maskati Commercial services as its local business partner.

-Wipro set up training centre in Riyadh for Saudi Arabian nationals.

-To issue & allot 8803 equity shares of Rs.2/- each pursuant to exercise of stock options by eligible employees.

- Comp. have set up a wholly owned subsidiary Comp. viz. Wipro Consumer Care Limited. This Comp. will be engaged in the manufacture of consumer care & lighting products.

-Company has signed a master service agreement with its client, General Motors [GMs]. This umbrella contract encompasses all of Wipro existing efforts with GM & gives licence to all its divisions to bid for latter projects independently. The agreement broadly outlines the pricing, delivery & penalties of GM projects with its vendors.

-Wipro set up training centre in Riyadh

-Wipro signs a partnership agreement to jointly market

-Wipro partners with Excelergy

2004

-Wipro Ltd has informed that Mr V Ramachandran who has been appointed as Comp. Secretary with effect from August 01, 2003, shall act as the Compliance Officer of Comp. with respect to compliance of stock exchange listing agreement requirement.

-Wipro emerges as biggest wealth creator during April '98-Mar '03

-Wipro inks MoU with UAE centre

-Israeli firm ties up with Wipro Spectramind

-Wipro joins billion dollar club

-01 markets, the e-procurement business unit of Wipro, has been sliced into two units. One will go with Wipro Technologies, while the other will be part of Wipro Infotech.

- Wipro bags $1bn, long-term outsourcing contract from Anglo-Dutch energy to oil major Royal Dutch Shell Group.

- Wipro acquires 50 acres of land from MIDC

-Itqan Al Bawardi, the UAE leading systems integrator, has entered into an agreement with Wipro

-Wipro, India No. 2 listed software service company, said it had won a multi-year contract from Switzerland Loyalty Gate Ltd., which helps airlines run loyalty programmes

-Wipro partners with Intel for i-shiksha

2005

-NYSE partners with Wipro on Corporate Governance Web Site

-Wipro Ltd implements the Dubai Commodity Receipts [DCRs] application for Dubai Metals & Commodities Centre [DMCCs]

- Barron's, the Dow Jones Business & Financial Weekly, names Vivek Paul, Vice Chairman, of Comp. as one of 30 of The World Most Respected CEOs.

-Wipro Infotech announced on September 06 that it has signed a contract with Karnataka Bank for implementation of solution for asset liability management.

2007

- Wipro inks deal with Lockheed Martin. - Wipro has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Oki Techno Centre Singapore Pte Ltd [OTCSs].

2008

-Wipro Ltd on April 18, 2008 announced changes in the management structure of its IT Business & expansion of its Board of Directors. Girish Paranjpe, Suresh Senapaty & Suresh Vaswani have been appointed to the Board of Wipro limited Wipro also re-structured its IT Business by appointing Girish Paranjpe & Suresh Vaswani as Joint-CEOs.