Back to resources

India’s NGO Sector is the most diverse in the world

Civil Society | Aug 1, 2008

Writer and philanthropist Rohini Nilekani, wife of Infosys co-chairman Nandan Nilekani, has been deeply involved in development issues for many years now. She is the trustee of Akshara Foundation, which works to bring literacy and teaching programmes to poorer children; she co-founded Pratham Books, a non-profit publishing enterprise to produce high-quality, low-cost books for children in several Indian languages; end, with a private endowment, she started Arghyam, an NGO committed to sustainable water for all, in 2001.

View PDF

More like this

Strategic Philanthropy  |  Civil Society

Private Resources and the Public Interest: How can Philanthropy Enhance Social Good?

This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s talk on how philanthropy can enhance social good given at CSDS, New Delhi. According to Credit Suisse, India’s richest 1% own 58% of the country’s wealth. Structural inequity is historically embedded in India, but it seems to be worsening. With this in mind, what is the public […]
Feb 21, 2018 | Speech

Civil Society  |  Others

Citizens need to get involved in governance: Rohini Nilekani

Rohini Nilekani, philanthropist and founder of Arghyam Foundation, believes that the state ( sarkaar), the market ( bazaar), and society ( samaaj) should strive for a balance with none of them having too much power. Her new book, Samaaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar: A Citizen-First Approach, is a collection of essays on what citizens can do to […]
Aug 19, 2022 |

Civil Society

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 […]
Apr 16, 2021 |

Civil Society

Get, Set, NGO: How non-profit sector is going through remarkable change in India

The nonprofit sector is undergoing a remarkable change in India, powered by technology, young professionals and committed funders. “What’s exciting for India is the innovation that’s happening around young entrepreneurs, how they are leveraging technology and how they are building communities that take more ownership,” she says. Rohini Nilekani, founder-chairperson of water and sanitation foundation […]
Oct 20, 2019 |