What India Inc can learn from non-profits | Livemint

Rohini Nilekani, who has stepped down as Arghyam Foundation chairperson, talks about how corporates can make social accountability part of their mission By Shalini Umachandran for Livemint  There’s no secret, quick fix formula to changing habits. It takes years, even decades, to break out of established patterns of behaviour, but philanthropist Rohini Nilekani believes the pandemic has shown […]

The World This Week – Children’s Magazine

Rohini Nilekani is the Founder-Chairperson of Arghyam, a foundation she set up for sustainable water and sanitation, which funds initiatives all across India. From 2004 to 2014, she was Founder-Chairperson and chief funder of Pratham Books, a non-profit children’s publisher that reached millions of children during her tenure. She has written several books for young children, published […]

Press Release: Arghyam Announces the Retirement of Rohini Nilekani as the Chairperson

Arghyam announces the retirement of Rohini Nilekani as the Chairperson; Sunita Nadhamuni is appointed as the new Chairperson  Since its inception, Arghyam has operated via an endowment of Rs 150 CR provided by Ms Rohini Nilekani in her personal capacity.  Bengaluru, June 28, 2021: Arghyam Foundation announced that Rohini Nilekani has decided to retire from […]

Rohini Nilekani and Arun Kumar | Succeeding in Partnerships

This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s conversation with Arun Kumar on Succeeding in Partnerships. The discussion highlights the importance of partnerships in addressing large and complex societal issues and the need for including partnerships in the organisation strategy. Collaboration is an important topic in the social sector today. Collaboration as an idea should, […]

To Fail is to Have Dared

In this interview with IDR, Rohini speaks about why we need to underwrite failure in the social sector, how philanthropists can support failure in practice, and shares some of her own failures as an activist philanthropist. When working on complex issues of social change, failure is inevitable. Yet, people in the social sector are reluctant […]

Climate Action and Impact: A Decade of Insights

This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani in conversation with Prashanth Prakash at the launch of ACT for Environment at the ACT Summit. The ACT Summit brings together India’s leading startup founders, venture capitalists and changemakers to talk about how we can leverage inventive startup assets and ideas to enable social change. In 2021, […]

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, […]

Building Trust Through Grantee Feedback: The Story of Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies

This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s conversation with The Centre For Effective Philanthropy. She talks about the importance of feedback, speaking truth to power and trust-based philanthropy.    We set up Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies only recently because earlier much of my philanthropy work was done through Arghyam, my foundation for water, or […]

Nandan and Rohini Nilekani; A Conversation with Badr Jafar

This is an edited version of an interview with Nandan and Rohini Nilekani on the Business of Philanthropy. In conversation with Badr Jafar, they discuss some of the golden rules for strategic philanthropy, how technology is changing the philanthropic sector, and how Covid-19 will impact India’s ability to achieve the SDGs by 2030. I have […]