Salil is the Chair of the Writers in Prison Committee of PEN International and senior adviser at the Institute for Human Rights and Business. He has been a foreign correspondent in Singapore and Hong Kong. He is contributing editor at ‘Mint’ and ‘The Caravan’ and also written for many international publications. His awards include the Citibank Pan Asia Economic Journalism Award (1994), third prize at the Bastiat awards (2011) , and Red Ink Award for Human Rights Journalism (2015). His books include ‘Offence: The Hindu Case’, ‘The Colonel Who Would Not Repent: The Bangladesh War and its Unquiet Legacy’ and ‘Detours: Songs of the Open Road’.  He is currently working on a book about Gujaratis.