Nilekanis pledge to donate half of their wealth for philanthropy

With four Bengalureans being the only Indian signatories to Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge, the IT city could very well be the philanthropy capital of the country. Representatives of India Inc here adopt fresh approaches to humanitarianism — from closely-monitored capacity building in existing nonprofits to promoting tech-led scalable market solutions for development issues. Additionally, younger […]

Seven years after Bill Gates pioneered the Giving Pledge, 171 ultra-wealthy people have vowed to give away at least half their wealth. Nandan and Rohini Nilekani have just become the fourth signatory to the pledge from India. The trio spoke to Anand Mahadevan and Archana Rai about the different but complementary roles that private philanthropy […]

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 […]

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 […]