Darshan Shankar

Darshan Shankar began his professional work in 1973 at the University of Bombay, where he conceived, designed and coordinated (1973—80) a postgraduate ‘experiential learningprogramme’. This programme offered twoyear fellowships to graduates of different disciplines to live in rural areas and develop socially useful action—research projects. In 1976, the programme received a Commonwealth Award after being adjudged the best project in the Commonwealth for linking university education to community needs.

Between 1980 and 1992, Shankar lived in a tribal area in Maharashtra, where he worked with a grassroots, non-government organisation called the Academy of Development Science. It was during this period that he was exposed to the tremendous social relevance of local health traditions.

Since 1993, Darshan Shankar has been the Director of the Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT), Bangalore. In 1998, he received the Norman Borlaug award and in 2002, the medicinal plant conservation programme in peninsular India, coordinated by FRLHT, received the United Nations' Equator Initiative Prize.

Email — darshan.shankar@frlht.org.in

P.M. Unnikrishnan

Unnikrishnan studied at the Ayurveda College, Coimbatore and graduated as an Ayurvedic physician in 1992. In the same year, he founded (with some friends) the Centre for Ayurvedic Research and Development (CARD), a network of clinical centres in Kerala to promote classical Ayurvedic practice and research. After graduation, he worked as a Research Fellow at the famous Amala Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Kerala, and was also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Toyama, Japan.