Ritu Jha-
Politics may be polarizing but eventually, we have to realize it’s all about us, the people, and how we build our society with all the natural resources and wonders around us, said Rohini Nilekani, Chairperson of Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies, during a conference at Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (Stanford PACS), held in collaboration with Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes), that discussed transforming health care in the Global South on May 31, 2024.
Sharing the panel ‘Societal Solutions for Global Challenges’ with her husband Nandan Nilekani, which was moderated by Priya Shanker, Executive Director, Stanford PACS, Rohini highlighted the means to achieve growth using systems and platforms that help distribute knowledge and bring transformation. “We should take advantage of all the resources, and the technology that people like Nandan build, to make our society stronger and more generous towards each other with much more empathy.”
“All the work that we do in our philanthropy is really about strengthening society, so that it can make markets accountable, governments accountable to the larger public interests, and make people of the society feel like they have more agency, more dignity, and more choice in whichever sector we work in,” Rohini added.
Project ECHO, started by Dr. Sanjeev Arora, uses video-conferencing technology to train, advise, and support primary care providers. It increases access to specialty treatment in rural areas for a variety of conditions.
Speaking about it, Rohini said, “ECHO model the way that everyone learns, teaches, and move knowledge. It’s a very simple, but very elegantly designed protocol to allow people to equip themselves with the knowledge that they need, whenever they need it, whenever they need it, to be able to solve healthcare problems.”
Rohini, who is also the Co-founder and Director of EkStep, urged more philanthropies to join the ECHO network while stating her pride in being a part of the group.
Nandan, co-founder and non-executive chairman of Indian IT major Infosys, was the Founding Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India aka Aadhaar Card. Speaking about building ‘digital capital’, he said, “We are now building a data infrastructure. Unlike data getting captured by a few companies or the government, in the data infrastructure we have built, the data comes to the individual or the business itself. They can take that data, which we call as digital capital, and use it for getting loans and other activities.”
“It’s flipping how the data can be used by the people for their benefit as opposed to accumulated by a few companies,” said Nilekani, who in April 2010 launched the logo and the brand name Aadhaar. Nilekani, who is also associated with project ECHO, however, warned about the gap in technology distribution and said it should be accessible for everyone to avoid increasing the digital divide.
Kamaljit Anand, a Stanford faculty, said the institute offers the kind of expertise that is not found anywhere in the world.
Kamaljit said Stanford can act as a neutral platform where corporates and startup companies, NGOs, philanthropic organizations, and all kinds of entities can come together to help solve the most complex and difficult problems of the world.
However, he opined that too much emphasis on technology and AI was not the way forward for philanthropic organizations. “Technology is an enabler, but the key thing is that it has to be driven by humans. The philanthropic activities have to be led by humans and not driven by technology,” he said.
Answering to a question about the Indian government’s technology promotion, Anand said: “We need everything. We need all the tools that are available to society, but we have to keep a human-centered focus at all times.”
Questioning the uneven distribution of technology, by stating that only those who can pay can afford to use it, Anand urged the Silicon Valley to rid itself of its greed and make technology inclusive for all.
Continuing his rant about the Silicon Valley, Anand said for every billionaire, there are 40,000 people who remain stuck at the bottom. “Resources are being sucked up by the system to the top, to the top 1%. But those at the bottom of the pyramid are losing out more and more. And I think that’s where we need to balance that,” he said.
He, however, did have some words of praise for the technological advances in India. “Technology in India has been empowering to the children, adults, and everybody because it is all-inclusive, and does not differentiate between class and caste and creed.”
He also hailed Digital India — a campaign launched by the Government of India to make its services available to citizens electronically via improved online infrastructure and by increasing Internet connectivity — for leveling the playing field for people of all caste and religion in the country.
The same technology, as per Anand, has failed to achieve the same in the US. “I feel technology has been a differentiator because 43% of people in the US don’t have broadband access so they are left out. There is this huge and growing digital divide,” he said.
Sridhar Vajapey of One World One Family, an organization that works in healthcare with super specialty hospitals and clinics in India, Fiji Islands, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, and one coming up in Clarksdale, Mississippi, said the governments can always do more to help those in need.
“Children are born with congenital heart disease and according to government statistics, about 100 are dying every hour. There’s enormous work to be done. Many times, we don’t have the capacity and we have a funding issue. We want to be in more places. If you want to give back to the society, you have to be where there is a need. Spreading awareness helps, because there are a lot of people who do want to give back, and want to do good. We have to reach out and communicate what work is being done.”
