Dr. Janakarajan, an Economist, currently a Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, MIDS, Adyar, obtained his PhD from MIDS (University of Madras, Chennai). He has done his Post-Doctoral programme at Cornell University, USA, and subsequently worked as a Visiting Professor at the Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University, UK for one year during 1995-96. His areas of interest are development studies, rural development and agrarian institutions, climate change and disaster risk reduction, water management and irrigation institutions, conflicts and

resolution, environment, urban and peri-urban issues, and markets. He has several published books and papers in national and international journals to his credit.He is the author of Cauvery Family (an initiative towards conflict resolution) that has brought together farmers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to resolve the most vexed inter-state water dispute in the history of contemporary India through farmer to farmer dialogue

Dr. N.Shantha Mohan is presently a professor at the School of Social Sciences at the National Institute of Advanced Studies. Prior to this, she has worked as a Research Associate at the Joint Women's Programme (WCSRC-CISRS), Bangalore, as a visiting professor at the R.V.Teachers College, Bangalore, as a research Scientist at UGC, New Delhi, and as an assistance professor at ISEC, Bangalore. She has also served as a Gender Expert for the Info-Dutch Tungabhadra Irrigation

Pilot Project, Phase II. She holds the honour of being nominated by the ISRO Satellite Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation, Bangalore, to serve as member of the Committee for Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace. She has many publications to her credit.

Prof. R. Parthasarthy is at present the Director and Professor (PhD Economics) at Gujarat Institute of Development Research. He actively collaborates with governmental agencies, Indian and international NGOs and contributes as a member in a number of Government Committees. He also serves on the Governing Boards of several Non-Governmental organizations. He has been a consultant to DFID, London and the Centre for Development Studies, University of Wales, U.K. For

tenure of two years (2004 - 2006), he was HUDCO Chair Professor at the School of Planning, CEPT University, Ahmedabad. Currently as a Visiting Professor at CEPT University he continues to teach Environmental Economics and Natural Resources Management to the Post-graduate and Graduate students, and guides dissertations.

Dr. K. Hanumantha Rao obtained his Masters Degree in Statistics from Andhra University and PhD from Gujarat University in Economics. He started his carrier in Administrative Staff College, Hyderabad, and worked in Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, before joining National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) as a Faculty Member. He has about 40 Articles published in various Journals to his credit. He has been working on development themes like Poverty, Food

Security, Development indicators and Evaluation of Development Projects. He has Co-authored about seven books. He is presently heading the Centre for Wage Employment and Poverty Alleviation at NIRD, Hyderabad.

He is a professional social worker and an activist associated with grassroots development work for the past 22 years. As the head of Modern Architects for Rural India (MARI), implemented a wide range of development projects related to Health, Education, Livelihoods, Sustainable Agriculture and Good Governance. He has gained good experience in the water sector as he played a lead role in MARI in implementing watershed development, tanks restoration, water and climate change adapta

tion, IWRM, an drinking water and sanitation development projects. As the Convenor of Freshwater Action Network South Asia (FANSA) he has wide contacts in the NGO sector and has good knowledge of legal aspects of NGO / Public Societies’ Management.

Professor R S Deshpande, currently the Director of the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore, was one of the three Coordinators of the mega study on Farmers at the Millennium, sponsored by Ministry of Agriculture. He is the Vice-Chairman of the WTO cell of Karnataka and drafted the Report on the Impact of WTO on Agriculture in Karnataka State. He has helped the Govt of Karnataka extensively in the draft Agricultural Policy 2006. His current academic interests include farmers suicides in India, droughts and natural disasters, WTO and its impact on agriculture and

watershed development.He has served on various policy bodies of Government of India and Government of Karnataka and has been consultant to projects of the World Bank, Asian Development bank, and Land Equity International. Among his important books are: Crops and Cultivation; NGOs and Farmers’ Movements; Moon in the Mirror: Farmer and the Minimum Support Prices in Karnataka, Rural Policy for Growth and Poverty Reduction, Where Water Seeps: Towards a New Phase in India’s Irrigation Reforms and Footprints of Development and Change

Dr. Sumi Krishna, an independent scholar, writer and teacher, has four decades of experience in gender, environment, and development at the field, programme and policy levels. Her research encompasses the gender dimensions of natural resource management including biodiversity, local knowledge systems; participatory governance through community institutions; resource rights and livelihoods. She is also concerned with furthering feminist and interdisciplinary methodologies in the

academy and the field, and with helping young scientists integrate social science perspectives into their work. She has served as guest faculty at various universities and institutions and authored several books and other publications.

Dr. NC Narayanan is working as an Associate Professor in the Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA), IIT-Mumbai. Prior to joining IIT- Mumbai, he worked with SaciWATERs as the Executive Director. He was a professional hydrogeologist who later studied Economics and has worked on community based natural resource management. He has a PhD in Development Studies from the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands, and has taught at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand, and has done research at the Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum, and the Institute of Social

Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands. His PhD focused on the livelihood and environmental issues in Vembanad and has been published as a book titled, Against the Grain: Political Ecology of Land use in a Kerala Region, India. In the last three years, he has extensively worked on the conflicts and governance issues in Vembanad and also compared it with similar issues in other Indian wetlands like Chilika and Koleru.

Dr. Bala Raju Nikku presently the Head, Department of Social Work, at the Kadambari Memorial College of Science and Management, received his Ph.D. from Wageningen University in 2006. His research interests are: institutions, politics of policy, international social work, etc. He was actively involved in the preparation of Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) and Master of Social Work Curriculum (MSW) for Purbanchal University and served on its subject expert committee. Dr. Bala Raju Nikku

was the convener for the international conference titled "Social Development and Transition: Paths for Global-Local Partnership", organized in association with the Asia-Pacific Branch of the International Consortium for Social Development (November 26-28, 2008). Dr. Nikku has also chaired the National Seminar on 'Transition and Peace Building in Nepal: Opportunities and Challenges' jointly conducted by St.Xaviers College of Social Work and Kadambari Memorial College of Science and Management, during June 4-5, 2007

Seema Kulkarni is one of the founding members of Society for Promoting Participative Eco-system Management, Pune (SOPPECOM) working in the area of natural resources and rural livelihoods since 1991. She has a Masters in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences and a Diploma in Women’s Studies from the University of Pune. Having worked as a rural activist as well as a researcher, she is also actively engaged in policy advocacy and gender training in the area of gender and rural livelihoods. She has been consistently associated with the women’s movement in

Maharashtra and has been particularly involved in South Maharashtra on the question of Deserted women as part of the Stree Mukti Sangharsh Chalwal or the Women’s Liberation. At present, she is working as a Research Fellow with SOPPECOM, Pune and co-ordinating the gender and rural livelihoods activities within the organisation. She has published several articles around issues of gender, water, and rural livelihoods and contributed book chapters on the same theme.