Activist Sandeep Pandey and six others won this year's Ramon Magsaysay awards, the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize, for his work towards the upliftment of the poor and underprivileged in India, it was announced in Manila on Monday.

Pandey won the award in the emergent leadership category for helping found Asha (hope), a group which supports education and livelihood projects for poor children in India, particularly the Dalits.

Other winners of the prestigious awards include Philipppine Supreme Court Chief Justice, a nun in Pakistan, a doctor from Myanmar, a Nepalese journalist and a South Korean Buddhist monk, the award committee said.

Philipppine Supreme Court Justice Hilario Davide won the prize for government service for his decisions and actions in promotion of democracy in the Philippines. Ruth Pfau, a Catholic nun, born in Germany, was given the award for public service for improving the treatment of lepers at the Marie Adelaide leprosy centre in Pakistan and for fighting the stigma attached to the disease.

Bharat Koirala, founder of the Nepal press institute, won the award for journalism, literature and communications for developing professional journalism in his country while promoting the use of mass media for development.