Palagummi Sainath (born 1957) is an Indian journalist who focuses on social & economic inequality, rural affairs, poverty and the aftermath of globalization in India. He is the founder editor of the People's Archive of Rural India and a senior fellow for Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He was the Rural Affairs Editor at The Hindu before resigning in 2014,. The website India Together has been archiving some of his work in The Hindu daily for the past six years. Since late 2011, he has been working on People's Archive of Rural India, PARI, of which he is the Founder Editor.
Amartya Sen has called him "one of the world's great experts on famine and hunger".
In June 2011, Sainath was conferred an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree (DLitt) by the University of Alberta, the university's highest honor. He is one of few Indians to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award, which he accepted in 2007 in the category of Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts.