Born on December 16th, 1938, Shri Tejendra Khanna did his M. Sc. (Physics) from Patna University and M.A. in Public Administration from University of California, Berkeley, U.S. He joined Indian Administrative Service on June 1st, 1961. He held different administrative positions in Punjab. He was the Chief Secretary, Punjab during 1991-92.

He has also held important positions in the Government of India as Chief Controller, Imports and Exports and Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Food. He retired from IAS as the Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Commerce in 1996. He was the 16th Lt. Governor, Government of NCT of Delhi from January 4th, 1997 to April 19th, 1998.

After demitting the Lt. Governor's Office, he undertook Consultancy for three U.N. agencies, namely, UNCTAD, UNDP and ESCAP. He was a Member of the Indo-German Consultative Group since 1999 set up by the two Governments to promote Indo-German cooperation under the aegis of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of both the countries. Between 1999 and 2007, he chaired the Board of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. and also worked as the Chairman of the Advisory Board of Standard Chartered Bank, U.K from January 1999 up to December 2003. He has been associated with several organizations working in the field of Social Welfare viz. HelpAge India and is a Trustee Member of the "Population First" focusing, inter alia, on welfare of the Girl Child. He is a Life Member of Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan and the Indian Institute of Public Administration since 1978.