Article
A Job For The One Percent:The elite must help build better cities, in public interest and in their own interest
The recent Bengaluru floods washed up the dirty linen of mismanagement and corruption on the shores of a crumbling city infrastructure. Yet, no matter how quickly various governments build out physical public services, especially in urban India, the demand for it outstrips the supply. Be it roads and transport, electricity and water supply, hospitals, or […]
Article
Grand Tamasha: ‘No govt can do without civil society in a developing nation’
“Governments need civil society organisations to serve as mirrors; they need them to reach the first mile… they need all the risk-taking capital. No government can do without that in a developing country like ours which is so highly aspirational,” Nilekani told Milan Vaishnav, host of the Grand Tamasha podcast. Grand Tamasha is a co-production […]
Podcast
Rohini Nilekani on the Secret to Successful Governance | Grand Tamasha
Rohini Nilekani is an author and philanthropist who has worked for over three decades in India’s social sectors. She is the founder of Arghyam, a foundation for sustainable water and sanitation, and she also co-founded Pratham Books, a nonprofit which aims to enable access to reading for millions of children. With her husband Nandan, she […]
Interview
Off The Cuff with Rohini Nilekani
This is an edited version of ThePrint’s ‘Off The Cuff’, a conversation between Rohini Nilekani, ThePrint’s Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta, and Senior Editor Sandhya Ramesh. They discuss Rohini’s new book, ‘Samaaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar’, as well as the changing nature of philosophy, the role of women, and how technology can be used to improve education. My book, […]
Interview
During the pandemic, we learned how Samaaj, Sarkaar and Bazaar work together in a crisis: Rohini Nilekani
This year marks 30 years since philanthropist-author Rohini Nilekani started her journey in civic engagement. She started with Nagarik, a public charitable trust, in 1992 and is now the Chairperson of Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies and Director of EkStep, a non-profit education platform. She is the Co-founder and Former Chairperson of Arghyam, a foundation she set […]
Article
The young, optimistic and idealistic will shape India at 100
It is 75 years since we raised our own flag in our own country, reclaiming it for ever more. What a time for celebration. Here we are, a young democracy, alive with the throbbing hopes of a young population, seeking to fulfil the promise of the Constitution that we gave ourselves in the new India. […]
Interview
India@75 I Samaaj, Sarkar, Bazaar I Rohini Nilekani on the Citizen, State& Markets I Barkha Dutt
This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s conversation with Barkha Dutt on her new book and the intersection of the markets, society, and state. I haven’t spoken a lot about the incident that I mention in the introduction of my book, which started me on my engagement with civic issues, because tragedies happen in […]
Podcast
The Importance Of Water Data With Peter Gleick & Rohini Nilekani | Dalberg
This is an edited version of an episode on The Water Data Podcast produced by Dalberg Advisors and Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment. The hosts, Veena Srinivasan and Nirat Bhatnagar, speak with Peter Gleick from Pacific Institute and Rohini Nilekani about the role and importance of water data, trends in the […]
Keynote
Closing Event at Contagion – Science Gallery Bengaluru
Phase one of Science Gallery Bengaluru’s exhibition-season CONTAGION phase came to a close Sunday 13 June, 2021, with closing remarks by Rohini Nilekani. The COVID-19 pandemic has sent alarm bells ringing throughout the world. While we have witnessed great socio-political and economic turbulence since the start of this pandemic, we’ve also seen a renewal of […]
Article
Laws and criminal justice: Where the Indian Elite can’t Secede
It is extremely important that the Supreme Court is re-examining colonial era sedition laws, which were repealed in the United Kingdom (UK) itself, but which no government in India has revoked, and in fact, each has used to stifle dissent. Sedition laws, however, are at the apex of a mountain of laws that need to be examined […]
Panel
Insider-Outsider-Insider
Rohini Nilekani moderates a discussion on delivering large-scale transformational programs, impact on the ground, and the implementation of such programmes in a large and diverse country like India. The discussion draws on the learnings from the Swachh Bharat Mission, the world’s largest successful behaviour change programme, which drew over 55 crore rural Indians out of […]
Keynote
Rohini’s Comments at The Annual Desh Apnayen Awards Ceremony
This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s address at the ACTIZENS awards ceremony hosted by the Desh Apnayen Sahayog Foundation. In her speech as Chief Guest, Rohini Nilekani discusses how we can harness India’s latent potential to shape extraordinary citizens who will make India the world’s greatest democracy. You and your friends, and all […]
Panel
Building a Social Muscle via Mediation
This is an edited version of the CAMP IDEX mediation webinar on ‘Building a social muscle and finding common ground.’ Adversarial behaviours dominate our lives, but the culture of collaboration is growing. Justice Kurian Joseph, Sriram Panchu and Rohini Nilekani discuss how mediation can help society find common ground in this session, moderated by Krishna […]
Panel
Rohini Nilekani’s Comments at Launch of the #DigitalDecade to Strengthen Public Institutions
This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s comments at an online event hosted by New America. The discussion was on the margins of the 2020 UN General Assembly to launch a #DigitalDecade to develop open source technology solutions that will strengthen public institutions in countries worldwide. We have reached a tipping point when it […]
Article
Corporates Should Support the Rule of Law
The time has come to align self-interest and public interest in support of the rule of law and constitutional values. I have often talked about the continuum of sarkaar, samaaj, and bazaar, and why, for a successful society, these three sectors must work together in a fine balance. Ideally, sarkaar, or the state, should not […]
Article
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 […]
Keynote
Private Resources and the Public Interest: How can Philanthropy Enhance Social Good?
This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s talk on how philanthropy can enhance social good given at CSDS, New Delhi. According to Credit Suisse, India’s richest 1% own 58% of the country’s wealth. Structural inequity is historically embedded in India, but it seems to be worsening. With this in mind, what is the public […]
Article
The end of secession: Why the elite withdrawal from public services is coming to an end
With the approaching winter the air quality in many Indian cities, especially in Delhi, becomes a public health hazard. Something so fundamental as breathing easy can no longer be taken for granted. It’s a wake-up call worthy of a civic revolution. View PDF
Interview
India’s Uber Rich: How they Should Behave.
This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s conversation with Vikram Singh Mehta at the 2016 Times Lit Fest in Delhi. When my family happened to get rich a few years ago, I had to grapple with the question of what to do with this wealth. As someone who was a journalist, and who grew […]
Article
Invisible water, visible crisis
By now, everyone in India understands that we have a serious water crisis. Too many of our rivers are polluted, dammed, or dying. Rainfall is becoming increasingly erratic, and expected to become more so. Our groundwater is depleting fast. Our lakes are drying up or filling with sewage, especially in urban centres. Our water and […]
Panel
Philanthropy and Corporate Social Responsibility in South Asia and the US
This is an edited version of a panel discussion on “The Use of Philanthropy and Corporate Social Responsibility for Social Change in South Asia and the US” with Rohini Nilekani, Geeta Pradhan, and Alnoor Ebrahim. The event was presented by The South Asia Institute at Harvard University in 2014. It was cosponsored by the Hauser […]
TV Show
Uncommon Ground | Rahul Bajaj and Dinesh Mohan on Transport Solutions for India
This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s Uncommon Ground, where she brings together titans of industry and leaders of civil society to explore eight themes that are highly relevant for our future development. In this episode, she moderates a discussion on transportation with Professor Dinesh Mohan of IIT Delhi, who was the expert resource […]
Article
Payments for Ecosystem Services
It is clearly time for a new social contract with the farmer and the tribal, if not as a moral imperative certainly as a strategic one. Two symbols come to mind immediately when we look at India as it is instead of through the aspirational prism of an India shining or poised. One: the disenfranchised […]
Interview
Reconciling public stature with privacy is tough
Rohini Nilekani, wife of Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani, is a journalist-turned-author whose debut Stillborn – a medical thriller – was the first Indian novei of its kind in its genre. An active sociai worker, Rohini now runs Akshara Foundation promoting education for underpriviieged chiidren. She aiso pians to pen another novel. Chetan Krishnaswamy finds out […]
Article
MAD about Madhuri – The making of a phenomenon
Ten years ago, they would never have dared to make their feelings public. Today, however, Farooq Abdullah, T.N. Seshan, Orissa’s poet laureate Sitakanta Mohapatra and, of course, M.F. Husain can get away with publicly declaring their adoration of her. After all, what’s so special about these people? Everyone is in love with Madhuri Dixit. View […]