Interview
Trust is the Absolute Foundation of Any Partnership: Q&A with Rohini Nilekani
Rohini Nilekani is a fierce believer in the power of being an active, participatory citizen. She quips that her friends could get irritated with her Gandhigiri, as she went about picking up waste which people had thrown on the road or requested people to stand in line at bus stops right from her childhood days. Today, […]
Article
Taking Risks in the Face of a Pandemic
2020 has been a sobering year for the philanthropy sector, not just in India, but globally. We have witnessed rising inequality even in these past 6 months, with a few of the rich getting even richer while hundreds of millions of people fell behind in the ensuing economic slowdown. There are some who had just […]
Interview
My Philanthropic Journey: How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Embrace Failure
This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani in conversation with Vidya Shah, Chairperson & CEO, EdelGive Foundation at EDGE 2020. They discuss Rohini’s insights from her philanthropic journey over the years. My work in philanthropy spans different spaces, from groundwater and sanitation, early learning, social justice and governance, to the arts. I have portfolios […]
Panel
Rohini’s address at “Building India’s Digital Highways: The Potential of Open Digital Ecosystems
This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s talk on Open Digital Ecosystems. Globally, as well as in India, we are seeing more people realising that we need to create enabling infrastructure if we really want to address some of society’s most critical and complex problems. We need to reduce the friction to collaborate between […]
Keynote
Rohini Nilekani: On my journey as a philanthropist
This is an edited version of a speech delivered by Rohini Nilekani to a closed door gathering of Asian philanthropists. Most of us in this room are on a journey of discovery as philanthropists. We recognize that we have been lucky, we are fortunate to have wealth way beyond our needs. We want to use […]
Keynote
How Samaaj Impacts the way in Which Sarkaar and Bazaar Work
This is an edited version of a talk Rohini Nilekani gave at the offices of the eGovernments Foundation on how samaaj impacts the way in which sarkaar and bazaar work, and the role of samaaj in eGov’s mission. The Continuum of Samaaj, Sarkaar, and Bazaar Since the past 25 years, I’ve been deeply involved in […]
Keynote
Embracing Risk: Solving our Societal Challenges
This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s keynote talk on Embracing Risk: Solving our Societal Challenges at Dasra Philanthropy Week 2019 in Mumbai. Rohini talks about how we can take greater risks, both individually and collectively, how we can embrace failure as an opportunity, and how we can mitigate the downsides. We’ve come […]
Keynote
Samaaj and Bazaar: Congruence over Divergence
This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s keynote talk on Samaaj and Bazaar: Congruence over Divergence at Dasra Philanthropy Week 2019 in Mumbai. We often set up Civil Society (Samaaj) and Markets (Bazaar) as opposing binaries. In this talk, Rohini proposes that they have more in common and more to gain, collectively, in collaborating […]
Keynote
‘Role of Societal Platforms in Education’ at #ItAllAddsUp
Rohini Nilekani’s talk on the role of societal platforms in education made at the Akshara Foundation’s event on Maths: #ItAllAddsUp. How can we distribute the ability to solve issues together and restore the agency of every person in the system, so that they can also become part of the solution? I’ve been at the […]
Podcast
Sea Change – Nandan Nilekani, Rohini Nilekani
To unbundle the thinking and provide diverse perspectives on the need for new ways of catalysing scaled, speedy and sustainable societal change, we are happy to share a 3 episode podcast series titled Sea Change; co-produced by Societal Platform and Vakku. This is a show about societal change in the digital age, and how to […]
Interview
Our society has become so unequal. The wealthy need to be taxed more, says Rohini Nilekani
Rohini Nilekani is a bit nervous that people might have “an overdose of the Nilekanis” as she and her husband Nandan have been in the news all week for having signed the Giving Pledge, committing half their wealth — about $1.7bn — to philanthropy. She believes philanthropy isn’t just about giving but is also a […]