Biraj Patnaik is Amnesty International's South Asia Director. He was formerly the Principal Adviser to the Commissioners of the Indian Supreme Court in the Right to food case for close to a decade. A well known human rights activist in India and abroad, his work has largely been in Economic, Culture Social and Cultural rights (ESCR) over the past two decades. He is a post-graduate in management from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), and was a Chevening Gurukul Senior Scholar at the London School of Economics and Social Sciences. He is the founder/ Board member of a number of organisations including the State Health Resource Centre (Chhattisgarh) and Public Health Resource Network. Biraj has worked extensively on the lobbying for and drafting of pro-poor laws, most notably the National Food Security Act. Biraj was the Associate Director of the Delhi-based public policy NGO, Centre for Equity Studies. He is also currently an Honorary Research Fellow at Coventry University, UK.