Sanjeev Chopra is a historian, columnist and author of many books. He is also the curator of a literature and arts festival called “Valley of Words.” After a distinguished career in the elite Indian Administrative Service, Chopra retired as the director of the prestigious Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. Chopra has deep expertise in governance and development with rich experience in the agriculture sector. He has received many prestigious fellowships to institutions such as the World Bank, Brookings and Oxford. Chopra is a reputed speaker who has delivered keynotes at conferences around the world. He is putting finishing touches to a much-awaited book on the political economy of the reorganization of the Indian states since independence in 1947.