Gaja Capital Business Book Prize Announces Its Fourth Edition

Gaja Capital, one of India’s leading growth stage private equity firms, has today announced the Fourth Edition of the ‘Gaja Capital Business Book Prize.’ The Book Prize was instituted to encourage and inspire Indian entrepreneurs, business owners, authors, and journalists to write and share their stories with the world. It offers a prize money of INR 15 lakhs, making it the biggest book prize in the country to honour authors transforming the business ecosystem with their creativity.

Each year, the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize receives a diverse and wide range of nominations from leading publishers in India. This year too, nominations included books on Entrepreneurship, Indian family businesses, India’s digital tech revolution, important events in the Indian business landscape, economics and stories of personal success and failure covering the entire gamut of Indian business from independence to more recent, contemporary stories.

The jury for the fourth edition of the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize comprise stalwarts from the worlds of industry, investments, academia, public policy, and governance: Manish Sabharwal, Chairman TeamLease (Chairman, Jury), Imran Jafar, Managing Partner & Co-founder- Gaja Capital, Dr. Lakshmi Venu, MD of Sundaram-Clayton Ltd (SCL),  Michael Queen, Former Chief Executive of 3i (British Multinational PE fund),  Prithvi Haldea, Founder Chairman of Praxis Consulting (Prime Database), Neelkanth Mishra, Managing Director and Head of Equity Strategy, Asia Pacific for Credit Suisse, Shailesh Haribhakti, Founder and Managing Partner of Shailesh Haribhakti & Associates Chartered Accountants and Upendra Kumar Sinha, Former Head, RBI Expert Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)

Gopal Jain, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Gaja Capital, said “India has a rich history of successful businesses that have been looked up to by entrepreneurs all over the world. Learning from their stories is what gives future entrepreneurs the courage to wade through various hurdles and emerge victorious. At Gaja Capital, we believe that over the next few decades, Indian entrepreneurship and business models should be written about, critiqued, celebrated, and improved to create a vibrant business ecosystem, that is built to last.

I look forward to the fourth edition of the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize and I’m confident the Jury will curate an excellent reading list that should be on the bookshelves and desks of entrepreneurs, business owners and anyone interested in India’s growth potential. I am especially hopeful that these interesting stories encourage young entrepreneurs to read and learn from the experience of others. As for writers, journalists, and entrepreneurs, this will continue to serve as a platform to share their stories and create a body of knowledge that others can leverage and build upon.”

The Gaja Capital Business Book Prize 2022 longlist of 10 books is a must read: (1) Broke to Breakthrough: The Rise of India's Largest Private Dairy Company by Harish Damodaran, (2) Disrupt and Conquer: How TTK Prestige Became a Billion Dollar Company by T.T. Jagannathan and Sandhya Mendonca, (3) Harsh Realities: The Making of Marico by Harsh Mariwala and Ram Charan, (4) Indomitable: A Working Woman's Notes on Work, Life and Leadership by Arundhati Bhattacharya, (5)  Maverick Effect: The Inside Story of India's IT Revolution by Harish Mehta, (6) Rahul Bajaj: An Extraordinary Life by Gita Piramal, (7) Tata - The Global Corporation That Built Indian Capitalism by Mircea Raianu, (8) The Ambuja Story by Narotam Sekhsaria, (9) The Struggle And The Promise: Restoring India's Potential by Naushad Forbes and (10) Xiaomi: How a Startup Disrupted the Market and Created a Cult Following by Jayadevan P.K.

The winning book will be assessed not only basis the overall caliber of narration and research, but also on the quality of its insights and capacity to motivate and instruct young entrepreneurs. The jury will announce the shortlist in November 2022, and the winner in January 2023.

Amrit Raj's book "Indian Icon: A Cult Called Royal Enfield," a gripping account of how a strong Indian brand became global, received the 2021 Gaja Capital Business Book Prize. Mint journalist Mihir Dalal had won the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize 2020 for his debut book, Big Billion Startup: The Untold Flipkart Story. The 2019 prize was won by Girish Kuber, the author of The Tatas: How a Family Built a Business and a Nation.

About Gaja Capital

Gaja Capital is India’s leading growth stage, private equity firm. Gaja Capital invests in technology and technology enabled companies in high growth sectors such as Education, Financial Services, Consumer, Healthcare and Software. Its recent investments include LeadSquared, India’s leading high velocity sales execution software and Xpressbees, India’s leading ecommerce fulfilment company.