Back to resources

Learning the Art of Giving

Strategic Philanthropy | Sep 4, 2006

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 soon as it started rolling in, the social activist and journalist began to look for ways to give enormous sums away.
That’s been the hard part. With little guidance available for the country’s would-be Rockefellers, Nilekani became a self-taught philanthropist, building two foundations from the ground up. So far, she has provided a total of $37 million to Akshara Foundation, which is dedicated to education, and the Arghyam trust, which tackles water
issues.

View PDF

More like this

Strategic Philanthropy

Indian Philanthropy Series | Rohini Nilekani

This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s interview with Dasra, for the Indian Philanthropy Series. This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s interview with Dasra, for the Indian Philanthropy Series. In a country like India, philanthropy means something quite different than it does in Western countries where the basic standard of living is […]
Nov 28, 2016 | Interview

Strategic Philanthropy

Nilekanis pledge to donate half of their wealth for philanthropy

Infosys co-founder and Chairman Nandan Nilekani and his wife Rohini Nilekani have decided to pledge half of their wealth for philanthropy. With this, the Nilekani family has become the fourth Indian and second tech magnate from Bengaluru to join ‘The Giving Pledge’, the philanthropy movement started by U.S billionaires Bill Gates, his wife Melinda Gates […]
Nov 21, 2017 | Personality

Strategic Philanthropy

Philanthropy in India Is Taking Its Own Route

A debate was going on about a government proposal to make it compulsory for companies to spend 2% of their net pro?ts on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Rohini Nilekani, philanthropist and chairperson of Arghyam, a foundation she set up with a private endowment to work on water and sanitation issues in India, says she has […]
Mar 21, 2013 | Panel Discussions

Strategic Philanthropy

focus on philanthrocapitalism: myth or reality?

What Rohini Nilekani sees as innovative and different about the way she’s doing things is the way she has brought together the opportunities that coming into money has given her and her earlier work in the social sector, with ‘all its emotional charge towards equity’. View PDF
Mar 1, 2007 | Article