Born in Delhi in India, Professor Chibber obtained his PhD through the University of Wisconsin in the United States, and currently holds tenure as a Professor at New York University. He has published widely, with his most recent book Postcolonial Theory and the Spectre of Capital sparking widespread debate on post-colonial theories and approaches.
His previous work Locked in Place: State Building and Late Industrialisation in India will be of particular interest to South Africa, with specific reference to the role of the state and the capacities required of it to provide leadership to national development, the imperatives of state transformation in post-colonial societies and the constraints that face small open economies such as South Africa