Climate change and air pollution know no borders, and antibiotics resistance respects no boundaries. Bacteria from Africa can make people in America sick. The burning of Indonesian forests can keep Asia gasping for breath.
Rohini Nilekani
We cannot be mere consumers of good governance, we must be participants; we must be co-creators.
As citizens, we have to co-create good governance, we cannot outsource it and hope to be passively happy consumers. Like everything worth its while, good governance must be earned.
With the approaching winter the air quality in many Indian cities, especially in Delhi, becomes a public health hazard. Something so fundamental as breathing easy can no longer be taken for granted. It's a wake-up call worthy of a civic revolution.
At a physical level, India is blessed with a rich biodiversity of flora and fauna. We have a predictable monsoon, and a vast network of rivers and water bodies. We have one of the longest coastlines. We have enormous access to solar energy.
India is a groundwater civilization. Almost all Indians use groundwater, directly or indirectly, each day.
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.
If anything, all homes should have piped water supply and sanitation, which could improve public-health indicators and reduce infant mortality.
People have to clearly see the connection between their family's health and their sanitation habits.
Unmanageable waste has turned into a worldwide crisis. No matter how much local authorities do, no matter the level of public cooperation, no matter how much is recycled, the problem continues to grow.
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.
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.
In India, while there are some initiatives working with and for adolescent girls, there are too few state sponsored programmes for adolescent boys, be it rural or urban.
Because of its gradient, it is the site of many spectacular waterfalls, like the Unchalli Falls, near which, on a full moon night in winter, you might even glimpse a moonbow - a rainbow generated from the moonlight. This is the river Aghanashini - 'the cleanser of sins.'
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.
Putting a climate change lens on policy making offers a huge opportunity to make smart decisions about India's future.
What works at scale may be different from scaling what works. Pilots often succeed, while scale-up often fails when the context changes.
The better off Indian can engage more deeply with political process to demand effectiveness from the institutions of the state. We can raise our voices for better education and healthcare, for better public infrastructure, for cleaner air.
Good laws are fair, do not discriminate against any group and are reasonably implementable.
History has shown us many times that if the state repressively forces the redistribution of wealth and social justice, it becomes dangerous both for democracy and for human creativity. Yet, restraining the excesses of a capitalist structure that creates new inequities seems to need more than good public policy.
As we draw bad fumes into our nostrils, let our suffering lungs issue a call to serious action. Let's fight for all, not just some Indians to breathe and live free.
As a philanthropist, I fund a lot of NGOs.
As ordinary citizens, we don't spend much time reading about and thinking through the creation of new laws or amendments of old ones.
The Indian elite send their children to expensive private schools, bypassing the public school system. They have their own infrastructure for water, with sumps to store it, pumps to lift it, and fancy filters to de-risk from erratic, polluted government water. Most access private healthcare to bridge the health services deficit.
One of the great conundrums in philanthropy globally is that the way wealth creation happens itself often creates the inequities in society.
Once you are wealthy, you are in a nice comfort zone and want to stay there. So I always look in the mirror and ask, is my philanthropy making the world a more just and fair place?
In the ideal world, philanthropy should be redundant or at least it should be at the edges, as innovation or risk capital. But it's far from an ideal world; the wealthy are cornering more and more opportunities and resources from this planet. So, the big challenge for philanthropy is... can it engage with the distribution of wealth itself?
I think those who are already in philanthropy and enjoying it and making a difference have a responsibility to share their stories widely, and to be very transparent about their giving.
India's waste problem is gigantic, and with its economy growing steadily, it will be compounded manifold.
We can be inspired by and renew our ancient culture of sustainable design and living. Why not set standards for producers and importers of all goods and services sold in India?
With India going digital, we have a massive and dangerous e-waste problem.
Climate change has the potential to swallow up all other issues of development.
We must incorporate climate modelling in future plans and investments. Whether it is policies on crop procurement, skilling and job creation, urbanisation or even beach tourism, climate adaptation pathways will have to be imagined.
Climate change is already upon us, and its effects are being felt with increasing intensity.
In this great nation of saints and poets, public administrators and ingenious architects, has our national and local imagination shrunk so much that we cannot leave the last major free flowing river of peninsular India alone, for future generations to explore, enjoy and benefit from? Let the Aghanashini flow with Aviral, Nirmal Dhara.
We often destroy ecology-based livelihoods in the name of employment creation.
For the lakhs living along its banks, the Aghanashini has given people life and livelihoods.
We forget that the main constitutional responsibility of the MLAs and MPs that we vote for is law making, and oversight of the executive to implement those laws. During my husband's 2014 election campaign, I did not hear a single voter mention this aspect of the legislator's role.
Societies have debated the severity of punishment for vile acts over millennia, with complex moral arguments on both sides of the question. But citizens and society should pay more attention to the trend of over-criminalisation of common human failings and frailties.
Is water the next oil? Motives behind the question vary, depending on who asks the question. Those who see water as a future core commodity - therefore as profitable a prospect as oil - pose the question to create the right market conditions for water trade.
As with oil, water exploitation raises an inter-generational debt that will be hard to repay.
The uncontrolled and rapacious exploitation of oil has led to unintended consequences, and if we continue on a similar trajectory with water, the oil crisis will seem like the trailer of some horrible disaster movie.
Among the most important lessons to be taken from the history of oil is not taking essentials for granted. Conserve oil, but also conserve water. If our Hummers are a red flag in oil, maybe our Jacuzzis are the same for water.
Water is ultimately a finite resource. With all finite resources, there is a continuous need for sustainable and equitable management, by capping demand, improving efficiencies in supply and developing substitutes. This exercise is complicated by the sociocultural beliefs, values and affinities around this precious resource.
Luckily, water, though finite, is infinitely renewable.
A low-water economy should rest on the principle that water be left in its natural state in the environment as much as possible. Every drop extracted must be justified. Every drop used must be recycled and reused whenever possible.
Unfortunately, the overwhelming moral force exerted by leaders like Gandhi comes by too rarely in the life of a nation.
The urbanising middle class of the 1960s and 1970s had schools, hospitals, roads, energy services, even cultural institutions - all created by the state, or under its aegis. When liberalisation came along, they were poised and ready for take-off.
Millions of Indians have moved from just surviving or accepting life as it used to be to imagining a life where they can thrive and rise up to their potential. This rise of individual hope could generate massive amounts of creative energy.
The young men of India need us to do more for them. And we need to do it for men in their own right, and we need to do it even more urgently if we really want women to be empowered too.
