Bruce Rich has worked as senior counsel with major national environmental organizations to promote environmental and social standards for international development. His professional focus on finance and ethics, as well as numerous visits to South Asia, inspired the book from which this article is in part adapted: To Uphold the World: A Call for a New Global Ethic from Ancient India, with a foreword by Amartya Sen and an afterword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Beacon Press, 2010).