India Civic Summit 2025 | Concluding Address by Gautam John (CEO, RNP)

The India Civic Summit 2025, held at the Bangalore International Centre by the Oorvani Foundation, was themed around citizen-led action for climate-resilient cities. Through discussions and workshops, speakers and participants shared experiences to explore ways to make cities more sustainable and liveable. The event also spotlighted community-driven initiatives in addressing climate and civic challenges.

Gautam John (CEO, Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies), at the summit’s concluding address, appreciated the invaluable work done  by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) – being the invisible infrastructure that enable citizens, citizenry, and cities to function.

Transcript

0:00:07.9 Host: To conclude this session as well as the India Civic Summit 2025, I will invite Mr. Gautam John to come and talk to all of us and leave us with some of his thoughts on active citizenry in general. Gautam John is the CEO of Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies. Prior to this, he has spent several years with the Akshara Foundation building the Karnataka Learning Partnership and at Pratham Books. He was also a TED India fellow in 2009. Gautam, please take the stage.

0:00:43.4 Gautam John: I apologise. For those of you who were expecting Rohini, it’s me. I am neither as smart nor as wise, but I will try and channel her wisdom. Second, they promised me I would start the session. Now, I have to speak after Dr. Narayan and after all of this amazing work that happened in this city. So no pressure.

But I do want to say that for a philanthropy whose entire reason for being is based on the idea of Samaaj being foundational to recognise the raw energy, passion, talent, and interest and care that this room represents is both humbling but also deeply inspiring. To say that Samaaj is foundational and to say that citizens must co-create solutions and to say that citizens must participate in governance, is almost glib because this is what it takes to do it.

0:01:39.0 Gautam John: It takes patience, it takes perseverance. It takes patience, perseverance, and a whole lot of grit. In the face of immense structural challenges to hold fast to this work. And if you’ll forgive my language, I just want to say, thank you for giving a shit, because this work isn’t easy like Dr. Narayan said, like many of you have acknowledged, this work isn’t easy. It’s often thankless, and it’s almost always, how to say, invisible. And it’s not always easy trying to be the invisible infrastructure that makes citizens, citizenry, and cities work.

0:02:24.0 Gautam John: It’s not often easy to be invisible and not thanked, not recognised. But I do want to say it’s moves all of us forward. Like we saw the amazing examples of the organisations from Bangalore, Chennai, and Mumbai and across the country, it’s this spirit and this latent interest in what keeps us together as a society that moves us forward. And what I do want to say is really that we as a philanthropy but also we as citizens recognise that this work matters and your work matters. Every effort, no matter how small, has a way of expanding beyond what we can see. And while Gandhi may have never said, be the change you want to see, it’s true that change ripples from inside out, not necessarily from outside in.

0:03:16.4 Gautam John: Change doesn’t happen because someone grants it from above, it happens because people like you insist that it happens from the ground up. Thank you for your commitment, your energy, and for proving that the most powerful solutions often start with the Samaaj. Thank you very much, and thank you to Oorvani Foundation for holding this space, for all of us, all of you, and for doing it year on year. I look forward to next year. Thank you.

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