Ash Narain Roy is a PhD in International Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. He spent more than four years at El Colegio de Mexico, Mexico City, as Visiting Scholar in the early 1980s. He worked with Hindustan Times as Assistant Editor from 1990 to 2001. He has published several papers in national and international journals and presented dozens of papers in international seminars and conferences on democracy, local government, federalism, globalisation and Indian foreign policy. He has followed developments in the Northeast for the past 30 years. Roy is a member of the advisory board of several universities and think tanks. He has authored/ edited several books including Development, Decentralisation and Democracy published by Orient BlackSwan. He is currently Director, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi.