Rohini Nilekani – India’s only lady Philanthropy Champion

Out of the four Indians,  who  have made it to the latest annual Forbes list of 'Heroes of Philanthropy in Asia Pacific' 2014 -Rohini Nilekani is  India’s very own lady philanthropist to make it to the list of 48 persons selected for this list.

Rohini Nilekani (55) is the wife of Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, and has given away close to $40 million to various causes like groundwater conservation, sanitation , education etc. It was disclosed that she has recently sold 577,000 shares out of the 8 million shares that she holds in the outsourcer and that the funds from the share sale, amounting to $27 million will be deployed in various charities in the areas of water, education, environment and governance that Nilekani supports.

A former journalist and author, Nilekani, 53, has been an active philanthropist for more than a decade now and her notable contributions include founding Arghyam - for water and sanitation issues, Pratham books - which is into publishing books for children and also plans to donate $1.7 million to the New Delhi based National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER).

 Rohini can be described as one among the country’s leaders in philanthropy and her work is exemplary when it comes to being a responsible person who gives back to the country from her own personal money to achieve broader social justice.