Resources

Key Questions What is active citizenship and how do members of society participate in civic issues in big and small ways? How do different stakeholders interact one another and what are some positive outcomes of such civic expressions? How can it be catalysed in the Indian context? What can the state, philanthropies, and civil society […]

This is the third book by philanthropist and civil society leader Rohini Nilekani, the founder of Arghyam, a foundation that works towards sustainable water and sanitation goals, and Pratham Books, a publishing nonprofit that helps millions of children to read books. Samaaj Sarkaar Bazaar is a collection of Nilekani’s articles, speeches, and interviews, which offers […]

[Transcript] 0:00:16.5 Shobha: Okay, good evening and welcome everybody. Rohini, it’s a delight to be here with you today. And after that very illustrious introduction, there is so much we want to speak to you about today. So perhaps to get us started, a little bit of a warm up. You’ve come after the New […]

Recently, unseasonal rains flooded the city of Bengalaru. Visuals of privileged citizens living in upscale independent bungalows, riding tractors to get away from their inundated spaces, as their luxury cars lay submerged in the water, flooded our phones. Delhi is choking. As I write this, there are alarming newspaper reports of the rise in pollution […]

In this session of The Conversation Series, Rohini Nilekani, Chairperson of Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies and a committed philanthropist, shares insights into her journey from self to society, and recounts personal stories of how she arrived at this philosophy of a strong Samaaj as the foundational sector. The author of ‘SAMAAJ, SARKAAR, BAZAAR: A Citizen-First Approach’ […]

The recent Bengaluru floods washed up the dirty linen of mismanagement and corruption on the shores of a crumbling city infrastructure. Yet, no matter how quickly various governments build out physical public services, especially in urban India, the demand for it outstrips the supply. Be it roads and transport, electricity and water supply, hospitals, or […]

“Governments need civil society organisations to serve as mirrors; they need them to reach the first mile… they need all the risk-taking capital. No government can do without that in a developing country like ours which is so highly aspirational,” Nilekani told Milan Vaishnav, host of the Grand Tamasha podcast. Grand Tamasha is a co-production […]

Rohini Nilekani is an author and philanthropist who has worked for over three decades in India’s social sectors. She is the founder of Arghyam, a foundation for sustainable water and sanitation, and she also co-founded Pratham Books, a nonprofit which aims to enable access to reading for millions of children. With her husband Nandan, she […]

हम अक़्सर कहते है कि समाज, सरकार, और बाज़ार के बीच तालमेल बढ़ाने की ज़रूरत है। इस संतुलन को कैसे समझा जाए? समाज को किस तरह से बदलाव का भागीदार बनाया जाए? आप और हम क्या भूमिका अदा कर सकते हैं? इन्हीं कुछ सवालों पर चर्चा लेखिका और philanthropist रोहिणी निलेकणी के साथ। उनकी नई […]

Few people in India have confronted issues of social urgency in the many ways that Rohini Nilekani does—as a philanthropist, but equally, as a founder-member of some of India’s best-known civil society organisations, as an inveterate mediator between society, state and market, and as a writer who has thought long and hard about what happens […]