Prem Shankar Jha

Prem Shankar Jha (born 22 December 1938) is an Indian economist, journalist and writer. He has served in the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank and as the information advisor to the Prime Minister of India. As a journalist, he held editorial positions at Hindustan Times, The Times of India, The Economic Times and The Financial Express. He is currently the managing editor of Financial World, the business daily from Tehelka and a senior journalist. Jha is the author of a dozen books including Kashmir 1947: Rival Versions of History and Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger: Can China and India Dominate the West?. He is also the patron of Muslim Mirror.

Early life Jha was born in Darbhanga, Bihar and attended The Doon School and St. Stephen's College, Delhi. He then went to Magdalen College, Oxford for a master's degree in philosophy, politics and economics.

In 1961, he joined the United Nations, where he spent five years in the United Nations Development Programme UNDP. He spent two of these five years in New York City as a special assistant to the managing director of the Special Fund, Paul G. Hoffman, who was the first administrator of the UNDP. The remaining three were spent in Damascus, Syria. Jha has also been a visiting professor at several institutes and universities like the Centre for International Affairs, Harvard University, Universities of Virginia and Richmond.

He has been a columnist for The Hindu, the Hindustan Times, the Business Standard and Tehelka.

Books He is the author of the following books. Robert Wirsing points out that Jha's book is "laced with partisanship" and that he exaggerates the strength of his conclusions. Wirsing observes that Jha's research is not sufficient support for the sweeping claims he makes. Wirsing states that while challenging Pakistan's version of events Jha has failed to deliver a knockout punch to Pakistan.

Awards On 29 December 2021, Jha received the RedInk lifetime achievement award by the Mumbai Press Club "for his long and distinguished career of incisive and analytical writing".