Rohini Nilekani

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

If the privileged in society can use that privilege to privilege others, then the consequences can be tremendous.

Having our own children in good schools does not inure us from the ill-effect of others having theirs in poor schools. Having great roads within our gated homes and offices does not help when our fancy cars spill out on to poor public roads.

It is not easy to calculate the cost of land to build individual or community toilet systems. But we need to account for it when we total up the true cost of sanitation.

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

As we celebrate a culture of giving, however, we must also sharpen the question of how extreme wealth generation happens in the first place. And we must recognize that just societies cannot be realized merely by the willful distribution of surplus wealth.

What role can such philanthropy play in a society like ours? For one, philanthropic capital can go where markets will not go and where states often cannot go.

Personal philanthropy must be separated from corporate philanthropy. Personal philanthropy is more about giving back to society, or giving forward, as it is now referred to.

India has a long tradition of giving that cuts across all sections of society. It is a living legacy that we can all be proud of.

Everything does not have to be a commodity.

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

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

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

We cannot imagine democracies without a vibrant civil society.

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

When 9/11 happened, it changed things overnight, giving the biggest shock treatment to individual agency. People in the U.S., the absolute stronghold of individualism and libertarianism, had to give up many cherished freedoms and privacies in exchange for the promise of public safety.

I have never hesitated to say that all philanthropists do have their politics. All of us have a political point of view; some of us articulate it, some of us don't.

When you keep un-bundling various aspects of a social problem, you can arrive at a very basic, common space.

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

We must overcome our cultural barriers that giving should be a private and silent activity.

We all require equal access to the justice system.

We all need good laws, and an independent, impartial, and efficient judiciary to verify the constitutionality of those laws.

Indian philanthropy doesn't take enough risk.

We all want and need the rule of law to be upheld.

For India's sake as much as its own, Bihar needs to be strong again, less vulnerable to the many forces that would deny democracy and curtail choice. Its people are its strength, and have many skills that other states have benefited from.

You cannot say that I get water to people. I don't physically do that. Through Araghyam, we support several NGOs across the country which are tackling the problem on a day to day basis.

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

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

I have a philanthropy advisor, Hari Menon, who was earlier at the Gates Foundation.

As a philanthropist, I fund a lot of NGOs.

Any societal platform needs a bold steward, willing to hold the moral compass and risk failure. A system steward must persist as a positive catalyst that continuously creates opportunities and sustains the grammar of the intent.

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

What works at scale may be different from scaling what works. Pilots often succeed, while scale-up often fails when the context changes.

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

I was always clear that I didn't want to just do pure charity. My thinking was definitely about looking at the levers in society that will change the system of inequity, not one person's misfortune.

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

I came from a seedha-saadha middle class family in Mumbai. The Infosys story changed our life drastically but we have remained the same.

I was never the feisty kind of activist.

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

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

No doubt there are dangers involved in letting children go online unsupervised.

It is inevitable that we will need digital technology to re-imagine learning beyond schooling. Even if it is only to inspire people to do more things physically.

Depending on which of the many hydrogeological zones of India you tap into, the water can either be easy to reach or incredibly difficult to suck out.

Being near a water source can determine lives, livelihoods and prosperity.

India is criss-crossed with the most elegant wells that tap into the shallow aquifer.

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

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

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

Governments do have the duty to protect national interest. But we should not be afraid of foreign funding of Indian CSOs, unless malintent can be proved.

Rich or poor, we all need organizations that can represent us; we all need modes of collective action when individual action does not yield justice.