Eminent journalist and prolific writer, Prem Shankar Jha (b.1938) was born in Patna, Bihar and brought up in New Delhi. Educated at Doon School, Dehradun, he later earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. He completed his master’s in philosophy, politics and economics from the University of Oxford in 1961.
He joined the United Nations Development Programme in New York and Damascus in 1961 and worked there for five years. He returned to India in 1966 to pursue a career in journalism and joined the Hindustan Times as an Assistant Editor. He moved to the Times of India, 1969. After a brief stint as Acting Editor of the Economic Times, 1979-80, and Editor of the Financial Express, 1980-81, he returned to the Times of India as its Economic Editor. In 1986, he re-joined the Hindustan Times as its Editor.
Jha has been a consultant in the preparation of the World Bank’s World Development Report, 1978, and to the UN Centre for Human Settlements, Nairobi (Habitat), 1984-85 and again in 1986. In 1980, he co-authored a Manual for the Asia and Pacific Development Administration Center of the UN in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on the Management of Public enterprises in Developing countries.
He also served as a member of the energy panel of the World Commission for Environment and Development, 1985-87. He received the Energy Journalist of the Year award from the Washington-based International Association for Energy Economics, 1987. He served as the information advisor to the Prime Minister of India, V. P. Singh, 1990.
Jha has been an independent columnist in some of India’s leading papers, including the Hindu, Hindustan Times, Times of India, and Business Standard and in the weekly newsmagazines Outlook, and Tehelka. He has also been a visiting scholar/professor at Nuffield College, University of Oxford; Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University, University of Virginia and University of Richmond, USA; and the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (Kolkata).
Jha has authored several books including India: A Political Economy of Stagnation (1980), In the Eye of the Cyclone: The Crisis in Indian Democracy (1993), A Jobless Future: Political Causes of Economic Crisis (2002), The Perilous Road to the Market: The Political Economy of Reform in Russia, India and China (2002), The Origins of a Dispute: Kashmir 1947 (2003), The Twilight of the Nation State: Globalisation, Chaos and War (2006), Managed Chaos: The Fragility of the Chinese Miracle (2009), A Planet in Peril (2009) and Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger: Can China and India Dominate the West? (2010).
About the Collection: Prem Shankar Jha has donated a valuable collection of his papers. The papers represent an invaluable resource centered on Indian socio-political and economic discourse. The collection includes press clippings, articles and book reviews from various newspapers like the Times of India (1973-1986), Economic Times (1979-1980), Hindu (1991-2003), Hindustan Times (1998-2015), Financial Express (1980-1981), and magazines such as Outlook (1998-2008) and Tehelka (2009-2014). (Catalogue available)
Donor: Prem Shankar Jha
Acquisition: 2024