At the heart of the Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies is the philosophy of “strengthening samaaj (society), sarkaar (state), bazaar (markets) to our collective purpose of a good society”. We can gauge from Nilekani’s work in the past that the first pillar bears a greater urgency than the other two. She writes in her book, Samaaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar, “We are all citizens first, rather than simply subjects of the state or consumers of the market.” It is understandable, then, why the organisation would begin a podcast that gives a platform to leaders of social movements to share their stories. They are often the ones working at the grassroots level and shaking things up to create a real difference in society.

Rightly called the Grassroots Nation: Lives in Service, the podcast has had 13 episodes so far, featuring ecologist Dr Madhav Gadgil, social activist Aruna Roy, conservation biologist Dr Kamal Bawa, literacy frontrunners Dr Madhav Chavan and Rukmini Banerji, to name a few. Barring the latest one, each episode runs between 45 and 80 minutes. This duration is ideal as it allows the featured guest to go deeper into their background and contextualise their work for the listeners.