The United Nations Conference on Environment & Development (UNCED) or the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, provided a unique opportunity for national governments, international agencies and non-governmental bodies to negotiate a new concept for living in harmony with the resources of our planet. The discussions at the international level have established a significant role for the independent sector organisations not only in the UNCED process but that of the entire United Nations' family.

In India, a new initiative was taken to establish the People's Commission on Environment and Development India (PCED) as an instrumentality to ensure that a coherent package of nation's popular inputs, representing both the focus and diversity of opinions that exist in the country, was available throughout the preparatory process of the Earth Summit and at the Summit itself. The setting up of PCED was initially proposed at a conference of NGOs from all over the country on 1 August 1990 in New Delhi. It was formally launched on 19 September 1990 in conjunction with the ECO 92 Public Forum held in New Delhi and chaired by Ms Gro Harlem Brundtland, then Prime Minister of Norway and the former Chairperson of the World Commission on Environment & Development.

PCED is promoted by, among others, by its President, Dr Karan Singh, who was, for many years, Minister in the cabinet of Indira Gandhi and was lately India's Ambassador to the United States, Mr S P Godrej, Trustee & President of the World Wild Fund for Nature-India, Dr Ashok Khosla, Chairperson of UNCED's International Facilitation Committee for the NGOs and President, Development Alternatives, and the late Dr Lovraj Kumar, former Chairperson, Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development and former Secretary to Government of India. PCED has the support of many institutions and individuals with shared concern for the issues of environment, development, women, youth, industry, peace and human rights.

The overall responsibility for the affairs of PCED rests with the President and the Governing Council. Its important activities are to (a) act as a forum to enable the NGOs and concerned citizens active in the spheres of socio-economic development and environmental conservation to share their perceptions on development strategies and their impact on the environment ; and (b) provide inputs, on a national basis, to the preparatory process of the UNCED and its deliberations as well as to the central and State Governments. For these purposes, PCED aims to :

	Hold public hearings, seminars, symposia and other gatherings to elicit the views, insights and suggestions of concerned citizens and Independent Sector organisations ;
	Compile and collate the material gathered during these public hearings, seminars and symposia into a national package of inputs for the preparatory process of the UNCED and at the UNCED as also for the Governments at the Central and State levels ;
	Help evolve a national as well as a Third World perspective on global issues relating to environmental protection and management; and
	Prepare and publish papers and reports on various aspects of environmental management and related areas of study as inputs to the UNCED as well as to government at national and sub-national levels.