Neeta Premchand is a paper historian whose fascination with paper began with the Rio Conference 1992. Her curiosity started in Japan where quickly realised that they respected the craft and the artisan. She traveled in India in the footsteps of the American paper historian, Dard Hunter who had done the journey in the 1920s. In the 1990s, she found everything exactly as he had described it. But, tragically, in the next 10 years, everything changed. The paper was still made using cotton rags, but now, it was made by machine and cut by hand and could be sold as hand-made paper. At around the same time, she came upon the mill in Daulatabad which, in the 17th century had made the thinnest and strongest paper in the world and was used for miniature painting at the court of the Emperor Jehangir. It was about to be demolished. But there were still 2 master craftsmen. She took over the mill and laboriously cleaned and revived it.
Neeta Premchand has lived between India and Switzerland for the last five decades.