Meena Menon has been a journalist since 1984, was formerly associated with The Hindu. She has written extensively on socio-political issues including environment, development, and politics. She is the author of Riots and After in Mumbai (Sage 2012); Organic cotton: Reinventing the Wheel, Deccan Development Society and Kalpvriksh (2004), and The Unseen Worker with Sharmila Joshi, (Books for Change, 1998). She has also worked with Bombay Magazine, United News of India, Mid-day, and The Times of India. Uzramma is director of Malkha Marketing Trust. She is the founder of the non-profit research centre, Dastkar Andhra. She has been associated with the cotton textile industry of India since 1989. In 2005, she founded the Decentralized Cotton Yarn Trust with small-scale units to process cotton to yarn at field locations. She has been a member of policy groups for the handloom industry constituted by the Planning Commission and the PMO, and has participated in multiple seminars on cotton growing, weaving, and marketing.