Learning the Art of Giving
For Rohini Nilekani, making the money was the easy part. The Bangalore-based wife of Infosys CEO Nandan
Nilekani, Rohini owns 1.67% of the Indian outsourcing company, and her personal fortune soared to about $300 million along with the meteoric rise of its stock. She calls her windfall “a quite frightening amount of money.” And as soon as it started rolling in, the social activist and journalist began to look for ways to give enormous sums away.
That’s been the hard part. With little guidance available for the country’s would-be Rockefellers, Nilekani became a self-taught philanthropist, building two foundations from the ground up. So far, she has provided a total of $37 million to Akshara Foundation, which is dedicated to education, and the Arghyam trust, which tackles water
issues.
You may also want to read
Interview
The Shaili Chopra Show | Rohini Nilekani on Money, Life Lessons & Gender Equality
Transript: [Shaili Chopra] We’re breaking the rules. The question is, what rules are we breaking? Rohini, welcome to the show. [Rohini Nilekani] Namaste, Shaili. Thanks for having me on the[...]
Article
SSIR | Our Vanishing Developmental Commons
Written by Tanya Kak When I was a child, like many children, the street was where I learned how to live in the world. Playing was not just playing. We gathered[...]
Keynote
The Telegraph | Rohini Nilekani urges philanthropists to embrace risk, patience for lasting social change
The third edition of ‘Setu: The Bridging Gap’ brings Kolkata’s grassroots changemakers into focus, with attendees pledging around Rs 13 crore towards social development Philanthropic capital is the “best risk[...]