Rohini Nilekani

India's water challenges are intractable, messy and perennial.

— Rohini Nilekani

Indian philanthropy doesn't take enough risk.

— Rohini Nilekani

We all require equal access to the justice system.

— Rohini Nilekani

As a philanthropist, I fund a lot of NGOs.

— Rohini Nilekani

I was never the feisty kind of activist.

— Rohini Nilekani

The Giving Pledge is not meant to be prescriptive or restrictive.

— Rohini Nilekani

Children's ability to learn is infinite when they are engaged.

— Rohini Nilekani

In India, the concentration of wealth is in a few hands.

— Rohini Nilekani

My grandfather passed away in 1946, too early to see his dream of an independent India being realized.

— Rohini Nilekani

No single institution or effort can effectively create solutions for societal problems.

— Rohini Nilekani

If anything, all homes should have piped water supply and sanitation, which could improve public-health indicators and reduce infant mortality.

— Rohini Nilekani

It is one thing to obey a government order. It is quite another to succumb to resurrected irrational fears, especially of 'the…

— Rohini Nilekani

India is a groundwater civilization. Almost all Indians use groundwater, directly or indirectly, each day.

— Rohini Nilekani

Depending on which of the many hydrogeological zones of India you tap into, the water can either be easy to reach or…

— Rohini Nilekani

India's waste problem is gigantic, and with its economy growing steadily, it will be compounded manifold.

— Rohini Nilekani

Frontiersman ideas of individualism stand exposed as we realise just how much our actions impact others.

— Rohini Nilekani

History has shown us many times that if the state repressively forces the redistribution of wealth and social justice, it becomes dangerous…

— Rohini Nilekani

Societies have debated the severity of punishment for vile acts over millennia, with complex moral arguments on both sides of the question.…

— Rohini Nilekani

A low-water economy should rest on the principle that water be left in its natural state in the environment as much as…

— Rohini Nilekani

Climate change and air pollution know no borders, and antibiotics resistance respects no boundaries. Bacteria from Africa can make people in America…

— Rohini Nilekani

As we celebrate a culture of giving, however, we must also sharpen the question of how extreme wealth generation happens in the…

— Rohini Nilekani

Most disciplines invite us to more mindfulness, and more contentment. Not by consuming more externally, but by harvesting more from within, and…

— Rohini Nilekani

Addressing governance issues are important because whichever silo you work in, be it education, microfinance, sanitation, food or health, you would eventually…

— Rohini Nilekani

The urbanising middle class of the 1960s and 1970s had schools, hospitals, roads, energy services, even cultural institutions - all created by…

— Rohini Nilekani

The Indian elite send their children to expensive private schools, bypassing the public school system. They have their own infrastructure for water,…

— Rohini Nilekani

In the ideal world, philanthropy should be redundant or at least it should be at the edges, as innovation or risk capital.…

— Rohini Nilekani

In this great nation of saints and poets, public administrators and ingenious architects, has our national and local imagination shrunk so much…

— Rohini Nilekani

Water is ultimately a finite resource. With all finite resources, there is a continuous need for sustainable and equitable management, by capping…

— Rohini Nilekani

My mission is to put a book in every child's hand.

— Rohini Nilekani

One size doesn't fit all, and I don't have a monopoly over good ideas.

— Rohini Nilekani

With India going digital, we have a massive and dangerous e-waste problem.

— Rohini Nilekani

Everything does not have to be a commodity.

— Rohini Nilekani

Poor governance affects us all - entrepreneurs, homemakers, farmers, labourers, whatever identities we might have.

— Rohini Nilekani

People have to clearly see the connection between their family's health and their sanitation habits.

— Rohini Nilekani

It was only in 2001 that I set up a foundation, Arghyam. That was pretty much to learn the ropes of how…

— Rohini Nilekani

We have to get smarter about our cities. Especially when it comes to the most basic of public services - water supply.

— Rohini Nilekani

Rich or poor, we all need organizations that can represent us; we all need modes of collective action when individual action does…

— Rohini Nilekani

I believe that any society that allows the creation of legitimate wealth expects that the wealth be used for its benefit.

— Rohini Nilekani

As with oil, water exploitation raises an inter-generational debt that will be hard to repay.

— Rohini Nilekani

I felt very uncomfortable when I became wealthy. One of my ways of dealing with it was to give it forward right…

— Rohini Nilekani