Graduating students from Azim Premji University, located in Bengaluru, during their convocation ceremony on Saturday, October 25, were seen wearing stickers that called for the “end to ties between Wipro and Tel Aviv,” to show solidarity with the Palestinians and protest what they termed Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.

The university was founded by Azim Premji, former chairman and founder of Wipro.

Students stated that the company that is funding their university is “complicit in the genocide against Palestinians by partnering with Israel in many research projects,” and many of the technologies developed through these collaborations, they allege, are being deployed in the massacre of Palestinians. 

“We, the graduating batch of 2025, of APU, condemn the Israeli state and all the organisations that support this genocide,” the students said in a statement.

They added that “Wipro has an ongoing joint research project with Ramot, Tel Aviv University (TAU) – the largest higher education institution in Israel. There have also been allegations of ties with the Israeli military.” 

The students raised slogans supporting the Palestinian people while receiving their certificates in the presence of the faculty. They also held placards reading, “Stop funding genocide.”