The Interview: Rohini and Nandan Nilekani want to use Platforms to Fight Platforms
With “Societal Platform”, the billionaire couple are combining their ideas, experience, and wealth to effect change. Nandan Nilekani co-founded Infosys and architected Aadhaar, which now covers 1.26 billion Indian.s Rohini Nilekani isn’t just India’s most prolific woman philanthropist, but she’s also the sixth overall, While Nandan has mastered the art of building disruptive tech platforms, […]
Samaaj, Sarkaar and Bazaar: The New Normal in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic
This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s conversation with ET Now, about the Coronavirus pandemic and the changes it has brought in her work and in society at large. The pandemic has brought many changes in our lives, some for better and others for worse. The negative repercussions are being felt by people of […]
Rohini Nilekani | Casual Conversations with Citizens
This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s conversation with Gopal Sankaranarayanan, as part of the Casual Conversations with Citizens series. Rohini shares her experiences of life and encounters with the law, rights, and most importantly, her ideas of justice. I grew up in a fairly middle class household in Mumbai, and my parents wanted […]
Rohini Nilekani on Water, Societal Platform Thinking and COVID-19 Response
Rohini talks about the water sector, the COVID-19 pandemic and her vision for the city of Bengaluru. You can read the full interview at the India Water Portal. PDF
Rohini’s Message During the ChaloGive Fundraiser
This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s comments and message during the ChaloGive fundraiser. The way COVID-19 has restructured all our lives is unprecedented. Nobody expected everything to unravel quite this quickly. We recently conducted some surveys with Omidyar and Dalberg, and 64% of the respondents said that they were facing a serious loss […]
Rohini Nilekani on Technology and Education
This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s interview on the importance of digital-led education and early childhood learning, on Pratham’s 25th anniversary. Every child deserves education as a fundamental right in this country. But even today, we are not able to guarantee that right for all the children in India. The journey of bringing […]
ASER 2019 Launch
This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s conversation with Pratham co-founder, Dr. Madhav Chavan, on the ASER 2019 report. It’s been 20 years since I have been part of the Pratham family, and when we started our work in Karnataka what I enjoyed most was working at the Balwadis with the children and […]
Interview: What Shall We Do With All This Money?
This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s interview with Jayesh A Parekh, from a chapter in his book, What Shall We Do With All This Money? – Inspiring perspectives on Wealth As someone who grew up in a normal, middle-class family, my parents instilled in us values about wealth that prioritised giving rather than […]
Our Cities, Our Rivers: Re-imagining the Relationship
As 1.3 billion people seek better lives in a monsoon-dependent economy, the white and green revolutions may have produced grains and milk, but water is in some parts of India today more expensive and less accessible than milk. Ground water resources are depleting. NIITI Ayog sees a crisis by 2020. Where do we stand? How […]
We need to talk about failure in the social sector: NGOs must fail to succeed
A lot of ink is spilled and awards are bestowed each year celebrating the success of the social sector—and there is much to celebrate. But the truth is, if innovation is essential to the ultimate achievements of the sector, we should spend less time on success, and more time on failure. We lament the inability […]
