Career
He is also a columnist with Tehelka magazine. In 1961, he joined the United Nations where he spent five years in the United Nations Development Programme United Nations Development Programme. He spent two of these five years in New York City as a special assistant to the managing director of the Special Fund Mr. Paul G. Hoffman who was the first administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. The remaining three were spent in Damascus, Syria.
In 1966 Jha joined the Hindustan Times as an assistant editor, in 1969 he moved to the Times of India, where he was the deputy editor of The Economic Times.
He then joined the Financial Express as its editor before moving back to the Times of India in 1981 as its economic editors In 1986 he re-joined the Hindustan Times as its editors
The World Bank appointed him as a consultant in 1978 to prepare a report on the public sector in India. In 1977 the Asia and Pacific Development Administration Centre of the United Nations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia gave him the project of preparing a manual for use by public sector managers for operation and evaluation of projects.
In 1990 he served as the information advisor to the Prime Minister of India, Vice-President Singh.
Jha has also been a visiting professor at a number of 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.