Back to resources

Skills vs. Passion: The Challenges for Corporate Professionals Who Move into the Social Sector

Civil Society | May 19, 2011

Professionals “are very impatient to scale, and don’t realize that in the social sector, what to scale is more critical than how to scale,” says Rohini Nilekani, philanthropist and founder of Arghyam, a Bangalore-based NGO. Corporate professionals, Nilekani adds, tend to have a strong and mistaken belief in the power of the markets to solve social problems. “But both the market and the state have failed, and that is why the philanthropic and the social sectors are there in the ?rst place,” she points out.

View PDF

More like this

Civil Society  |  Climate & Biodiversity  |  Strategic Philanthropy  |  Water  |  COVID-19

Resilience, Hope: India in the Time of COVID-19 & Climate Change

This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani in conversation with Jairam Ramesh (former Minister for Environment and Forests) and Navroz Dubash (Professor at the Centre for Policy Research). Moderated by Barkha Dutt, New Worlds is a three-part digital series by the India Climate Collaborative to discuss resilience and recovery in the face of our […]
May 9, 2020 |

Accountability & Transparency  |  Civil Society

Bangalore vs Bengaluru: The Tale Of Two Indian Cities

This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s panel discussion with Naresh Narasimhan (Architect), Vinay K Sreenivasa (Alternative Law Forum), Pawan Kumar (Film-maker), and T M Veeraraghav (Resident Editor, The Hindu Bengaluru). The discussion, titled ‘Bangalore vs Bengaluru: The Tale Of Two Indian Cities’ was a part of The Huddle 2017, held on February 10, […]
Feb 10, 2017 | Panel Discussions

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  |  Strategic Philanthropy

Rohini Nilekani Comments on #REVIVEIndia

Namaste. For years now, I’ve been thinking about how should we all come together to reduce the friction to collaborate between Samaj, Bazaar and Sarkar. Because one thing has become very clear to all of us, right? Because of this pandemic, especially, that unless these three sectors can collaborate more seamlessly, there is no way […]
Nov 5, 2020 |