Madhu Jain has written on culture, society, the arts, and politics for three decades now. She has held senior positions at two of India's foremost newsmagazines, Sunday and India Today, where she was responsible for the coverage of arts and culture.

Jain was also an editorial consultant with Outlook magazine for two years. She has chronicled crucial twists and turns in India's social history. She was the Delhi correspondent of leading French daily La Croix for several years, for which she wrote extensively on Indian politics and culture.

Jain began her career in journalism with The Statesman, prior to which she was a student of literature at the Sorbonne. She also studied art history in Paris. She went to school and college (Connecticut College) in the United States.

Jain is currently an independent curator and columnist. She has curated two major art exhibitions: the award-winning Kitsch Kitsch Hota Hai (Visual Arts Gallery, New Delhi, 2001) and an exhibition of Paris-based painter Viswanadhan (Visual Arts Gallery, 2003). She is now working on two major exhibitions on contemporary Indian art.

Jain lives in New Delhi. She has written extensively on contemporary art for magazines, catalogues, and books. Her book on Indian cinema, The Kapoors: The First Family Of Indian Cinema, was published in 2005 by Viking/Penguin. She has contributed chapters to many books, including The Millennium Book On New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2001; Delhi: Improbable City, An anthology of writing on New Delhi edited by Khushwant Singh for Penguin, 2001; Bollywood, published by Dakini Publishers, UK, 2001; and The First 50 Years, London and Edinburgh Publishing.

Currently, Jain is working on another book for Penguin. She works in Delhi, where she lives with her husband, a physicist. They have two children.