Economist Karthik Muralidharan wins Gaja Capital Business Book Prize for his latest book

‘Accelerating India’s Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective Governance’, written by Indian economist Karthik Muralidharan, has been awarded the prestigious Gaja Capital Business Book Prize 2025. The award was announced at the Gaja Talks event, following a discussion with the shortlisted authors. The book was awarded for offering an effective blueprint to unlock India’s next phase of growth by focusing on stronger state capacity and effective public service delivery. The piece of writing systematically looks at India’s governance challenges, particularly in sectors like education, health, social protection and jobs and presents evidence-based reform strategies that can be executed at the state-level to ensure that economic growth leads to improvements in the lives of citizens.

The author and the blueprint

‘Accelerating India’s Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective Governance’ offers a comprehensive analysis of why India’s development is constrained not by a lack of ambition or resources, but by weak state capacity and uneven service delivery. Muralidharan argues that sustained progress requires a strategic focus on strengthening the core functions of the state, namely personnel management, data systems, accountability, fiscal federalism, and program design, rather than simply expanding spending or creating new schemes.

The book proposes politically feasible and practically implementable reforms to improve outcomes in areas such as education, health, social protection and jobs, with a strong emphasis on state-level innovation and decentralisation. Written in a clear and engaging style, it brings rigorous ideas into the mainstream and can become a valuable guide for anyone interested in understanding India’s economic trajectory.

Muralidharan serves as the Tata Chancellor’s Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego and holds a PhD degree from Harvard University. Drawing on more than two decades of research, policy engagement and experience from the field, he combines academic depth with practical insights to demonstrate how better-designed institutions, smarter public spending and stronger state capacity can improve development outcomes. The book stands out for the way it breaks down complex economic and governance ideas into an actionable roadmap for policymakers, practitioners and citizens alike, who are interested in building an inclusive and effective Indian state.

An alumnus of Harvard University and the University of Cambridge, Muralidharan spent a decade as a consultant at the World Bank before transitioning to academia. His areas of research include development and labour economics, with a focus on enhancing the effectiveness of public spending in the social sector. In addition to advising research institutions around the world, Muralidharan founded the Centre for Effective Governance of Indian States (CEGIS), an organisation dedicated to improving lives by helping state governments in India deliver stronger development outcomes, in 2019.

Shaping India’s future at Gaja Talks 2025

The award was conferred at Gaja Talks 2025. The event saw attendance from entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers and thinkers who deliberated ideas to shape India’s future. The evening featured a panel with the shortlisted authors, who discussed issues ranging from institutional reform and federalism to leadership, innovation and India’s evolving economic landscape.

“This year’s winning book combines intellectual rigour with practical vision to show how India can convert its vast potential into tangible outcomes for every citizen, by investing in a stronger, more capable state. In shining a light on governance and state capacity, it aligns closely with the Prize’s mission to celebrate ideas that shape India’s business and development story, and that inspire the next generation of leaders, policymakers, and entrepreneurs,” said Gopal Jain, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Gaja Capital.

The 2025 jury brought together leaders from business, investing, public policy, economics and governance, continuing the tradition of a multidisciplinary panel that evaluates books for originality, depth of research, clarity of argument and real-world impact. “Accelerating India’s Development is more than a book on economics or policy; it is a practical guide to making the Indian state work better for its people. The jury was particularly impressed by how the author balances ambition with feasibility, offering reform pathways that are grounded in evidence, sensitive to political economy, and focused on execution, not just intent,” added Manish Sabharwal, Chairman of the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize Jury.

Now in its seventh edition, the prize has emerged as a benchmark recognition for authors who illuminate India’s entrepreneurial journeys, institutional evolution and broader economic and social transformation. The jury for this year’s edition comprised of Manish Sabharwal, Vice-Chairman of TeamLease (who serves as Chairman of the Jury), Imran Jafar, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Gaja Capital, Arindam Bhattacharya, Senior Advisor and Emeritus Partner at Boston Consulting Group, Dr Lakshmi Venu, Managing Director of Sundaram-Clayton, Dr Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals, Neelkanth Mishra, Chief Economist and Head of Global Research at Axis Capital, Prithvi Haldea, Founder Chairman of Praxis Consulting, Shailesh Haribhakti, Founder and Managing Partner of Shailesh Haribhakti & Associates, and UK Sinha, former Chairman of SEBI and Head of the RBI Expert Committee on MSMEs.

Gaja Capital Business Book Prize

The Gaja Capital Business Book Prize was established in 2019 and carries a purse of INR 20 lakh for the winner. It honours authors and their works that celebrate the spirit of entrepreneurship, economics and business leadership in India.

Some past winners of the prize include ‘The Tatas: How a Family Built a Business and a Nation’ by Girish Kuber and Vikrant Pande, ‘Big Billion Startup: The Untold Flipkart Story’ by Mihir Dalal, ‘Indian Icon: A Cult Called Royal Enfield’ by Amrit Raj, ‘Broke to Breakthrough’ by Harish Damodaran, ‘Against All Odds: The IT Story of India’ by Kris Gopalakrishnan, N Dayasindhu, and Krishnan Narayanan, ‘Winning Middle India: The Story of India’s New-Age Entrepreneurs’ by TN Hari and Bala Srinivasa and ‘Entrepreneurs Who Built India – Lala Shri Ram: The Man Who Saw Tomorrow’ by Sonu Bhasin.

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