A founder Trustee of VIKAS Centre for Development. He is presently heading the organisation as Managing Trustee(Hon.). The major development programmes of VIKAS in the rural areas are in the field of Human Resource Development through Education, Training and Capacity Building and Support to Organisations of the Poor. In Urban areas the emphasis is on setting up Micro Credit and Social Security Systems.

An alumnus of M.S. University, Vadodara, India (1988-90 batch), currently based in Devgadh Baria. She worked with Mahila Samakhya Gujarat and Janvikas prior to setting up ANANDI - Area Networking and Development Initiatives.

A Founder Trustee of VIKAS Centre for Development. Doctorate in Agricultural Economics from University of Mumbai. She was associated with Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research and Mahatma Gandhi Labour Institute as Professor of Economics. She is now the Director of Centre for Development Alternatives, an Academic Research Centre, Ahmedabad.

Dr Somnath Bandyopadhyay is an independent Development Ecologist based in India. His core education in aquatic ecology (both freshwater and marine) was supplemented by Environmental Economics and Policy Analysis training from Harvard University (USA) and Market Systems Development from Springfield Centre (UK). Through international non-profit organizations such as the Aga Khan Foundation and Safe Water Network, he has worked on community institutions, strategies and programs in rural livelihoods, poverty reduction, and social enterprises. Through national government agencies such as Gujarat Ecology Commission and the National Mission Clean Ganga, he has worked on restoration planning, State-level environment strategies, and the rejuvenation of river systems. Most recently, he was a founding faculty at the School of Ecology and Environment Studies at Nalanda University. He crafted an interdisciplinary curriculum for post-graduate studies, managed an international research project on groundwater management for small farmers, and participated in various government commit-tees to conserve biodiversity. He is presently an independent consultant based in Vadodara, working on interdisciplinary programs related to surface and groundwater and related policies. He tends to adopt sustainable market approaches to address the problems of ecology and development, particularly in the context of livelihoods in stressed and degraded ecosystems.

Dr. Alka Palrecha Rawal, Director People in Centre Consulting Services, Ahmedabad, India has studied M.L.A. (Master of Landscape Architecture) at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. G.D. Arch. (Government Diploma in Architecture),Academy of Architecture, Mumbai. Has been Advisor, Natural Resource Management Programmes Ambuja Cement Foundation, Executive secretary, Coastal Salinity Cell, A joint initiative of Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India) and Government of Gujarat, Coordinator, Coastal Management and River Basin Management, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India), Ahmedabad, Gujarat,

Mr. Harinesh Pandya, a secretary of ‘Janpath’ a Network of Voluntary organisations in Gujarat. He is a founder and active member of ‘Jan Sangharsh Manch’, Civil Liberty Organisation working on human rights violations issue, housing rights of marginalised sections, issues of displacement due to industrial growth etc. He is actively associated and promoter of various people’s movements in Gujarat, (such as Jan Andolan, Movement against pota etc.) He has worked with Shreyas Foundation, Ahmedabad, from 1982 to 1986 and also worked actively in trade union movement of Gujarat from 1986 to 1999.