Gaja Capital Business Book Prize Announces Shortlist for 2025

The shortlist for the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize 2025 is out, highlighting the growing depth of business writing in India. Now in its seventh year, the award continues to recognise authors who go beyond numbers to explore how enterprise, policy, and leadership shape the country’s progress.

The prize has always focused on stories that balance rigour with reflection, books that capture the people and institutions behind India’s economic transformation. The 2025 shortlist spans governance, infrastructure, established brands, and the start-up world, offering a broad view of how ideas evolve and endure.

Karthik Muralidharan’s Accelerating India’s Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective Governance explores how India can move into its next phase of growth through stronger state systems and reforms that reach people on the ground. The Rise of Asian Paints: Champaklal Choksey, A Doyen of the Indian Paints Industry by Anupam Gupta looks at how a modest venture, driven by ideas and persistence, grew into a brand recognised in homes across the country. In Engineering a Nation: The Life and Career of M. Visvesvaraya (1861–1962), Aparajith Ramnath revisits the life of the engineer whose foresight and discipline helped lay the foundations of modern India’s infrastructure. C.K. Venkataraman’s The Tanishq Story: Inside India’s No. 1 Jewellery Brand traces how a jewellery company grew by pairing thoughtful design with trust and a clear sense of purpose. Rounding off the list, Mukesh Bansal’s The Startup Code: Taking Your Company from Seed to Scale reflects on the mindset that drives India’s start-up world and the lessons learned from founders who’ve built something that lasts.

Jury chairman Manish Sabharwal noted that this year’s selection captures the imagination and resilience of Indian enterprise, showing how leadership and character drive progress as much as profit. Gopal Jain, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Gaja Capital, said the books collectively illustrate the full spectrum of India’s business story, from infrastructure and governance to iconic brands and bold start-ups, underlining why India remains one of the world’s most dynamic markets.

The winner will be announced later this year. Carrying a prize purse of ₹20 lakhs, the award continues to celebrate writing that situates business within India’s broader economic and social journey, viewing enterprise as a reflection of long-term ideas rather than short-term performance.

The jury for this year includes Manish Sabharwal (Vice-Chairman, TeamLease – Chairman, Jury), Imran Jafar (Co-founder & Managing Partner, Gaja Capital), Arindam Bhattacharya (Senior Advisor & Emeritus Partner, BCG), Dr. Lakshmi Venu (Managing Director, Sundaram-Clayton Ltd.), Dr. Sangita Reddy (Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals), Neelkanth Mishra (Chief Economist, Axis Capital), Prithvi Haldea (Founder Chairman, Praxis Consulting), Shailesh Haribhakti (Founder & Managing Partner, Shailesh Haribhakti & Associates), and U.K. Sinha (Former Chairman, SEBI & Head of the RBI Expert Committee on MSMEs).

Established in 2019, the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize was founded to recognise works that bring clarity, insight, and depth to India’s business landscape. Gaja Capital, set up in 2004 by Gopal Jain, Ranjit Shah, and Imran Jafar, is among India’s leading alternative investment firms, with investments in TeamLease, Lighthouse Learning, RBL Bank, Xpressbees, Ei, Leadsquared, Signzy, Eggoz, Fractal Analytics, and Weaver Services (People Home).

For the authors featured this year, the recognition underscores the growing appetite for serious business writing, work that connects research with narrative and helps readers understand how ideas, leadership, and innovation continue to shape India’s growth story.

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