IDR | The limits of AI in social change
– Gautam John, CEO, Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies More actors—from grantmaking to service delivery—are exploring the use of AI. However, the excitement around scale and efficiency often overshadows a critical question: What does it mean to bring machine-generated abstraction into systems built on trust, context, and relationship? In systems of social change, we grapple with an enduring tension: connection versus abstraction. Connection […]
The jewelled Aghanashini: It’s the last major free flowing river of peninsular India, don’t put the squeeze on it
For its entire 124 kilometres, this jewel of a river flows free. It is probably as old as the Western Ghats, older than the Himalayan range. Though not especially long, this west flowing river has a volume of water equal to the bigger Kali or Sharavathi rivers nearby. It originates in Shankara Honda in the […]
Make India Climate Smart: We have big infrastructure plans but forget to review them through a climate change lens
India will invest billions of dollars in public infrastructure over the next few years. Government policies also aim to massively increase private investments across sectors – manufacturing, services and agriculture. Each of these policies and investments will have time horizons spanning five to 50 years. Examples of planned infrastructure include – 100 new airports with […]