Prem Shankar Jha

Biography

Prem Shankar Jha is a journalist, economist and author based in New Delhi, India.  He took a Bachelor’s degree in economics from Delhi university and a Masters of Arts Degree from University of Oxford in philosophy, politics and economics at Magadalen College, Oxford. In 1961, he joined the United Nations where he spent five years in the United Nations Development Programme UNDP. 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) in 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.

In 1985-1987 he was also a member of the energy panel of the World Commission for Environment and Development and in 1987 he received the Energy Journalist of the Year award from the Washington-based International Association for Energy Economics. Since 1990 he has been a columnist in some of India’s main papers, including The Hindu, The Hindustan Times, The Times of India,and The Business Standard and a visiting scholar/professor at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, the Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs, Harvard University, the Fairbank Centre for East Asian studies ,  and Nuffield College Oxford.