The Himalayan Research and Cultural Foundation is a national level multi-disciplinary research, cultural and development facilitative organisation set up by eminent area specialists, environmentalists, development experts, literateurs and cultural personalities, which has been registered as a non-governmental and non-profit body under the Indian Societies Registration Act, 1860.

• Founded in 1989 at New Delhi, the Foundation has been initiating, coordinating and promoting the systematic and micro-study of various issues pertaining to the Himalayan and Trans-Himalayan regions in South and Central Asia or parts thereof, connected with its environment, biodiversity, regional development, human resources, history, art and culture, language and literature, social structures, economies, human rights, peace processes, geopolitics etc.
  
  

• The objective is to make a scientific appraisal of the issues confronting the Himalayan and adjoining regions and to make specific policy-oriented studies and need-based recommendations as the means to promote the human, educational and economic advancement of the peoples besides preserving and enriching their ethno-cultural, literary and historical heritage. Efforts are also made to promote human rights and to achieve the goals of social justice, harmony and peace.
  
  
• The Foundation has evolved as a vibrant centre specialised on the Hindu Kush-Himalayan and trans-Himalayan regions in South and Central Asia. In recognation of its contribution, the United Nations accredited in July 1995 the Himalayan Research and Cultural Foundation as "NGO in Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC, United Nations," thereby bringing it at par with well established international bodies and providing it access to the United Nations and its agencies/bodies