This year's shortlist is a reflection of a 'new breed of confident, ambitious and rising corporate India', says one of the judges.
The Gaja Business Book Prize announced its 2020 shortlist of six best non-fiction books on contemporary Indian business. The selected titles comprise of a diverse range of stories business leaders, their entrepreneurial journeys, and the spectre of leadership.
This year's shortlist includes Big Billion Startup – The Untold Flipkart Story by Mihir Dalal, Bottle of Lies: Ranbaxy and the Dark Side of Indian Pharma by Katherine Eban, The Making of Hero: Four Brothers, Two Wheels, and a Revolution that Shaped India by Sunil Munjal, Saying No to Jugaad: The Making of BigBasket by T.N. Hari and M. S. Subramanian, and The Moonshot Game: Adventures of an Indian Venture Capitalist by Rahul Chandra.
The Book Prize was instituted by the equity firm Gaja Capital last year, and has been a way to celebrate and encourage writings on contemporary Indian business. It offers a prize money of Rs 15 lakh, making it the biggest book prize to honour authors transforming the business ecosystem with their creativity. It recognises the narratives of Indian companies and bolsters entrepreneurial spirit with its literary impetus.
“Business bookshelves are dominated by western stories of business and entrepreneurship. As the Indian economy scales and the Indian entrepreneurial and investor ecosystem matures, we will have many more stories and lessons for the world, from India," Gopal Jain, Managing Partner, Gaja Capital, said.
"As Investors and entrepreneurs in the Indian market, we have witnessed several such journeys first-hand. We would like to make a small contribution in encouraging Indian writers, journalists and entrepreneurs to tell our stories and tell them well, for the world.”
Girish Kuber, the author of The Tatas: How a Family Built a Business and a Nation, was the winner of the inaugural Gaja Capital Business Book Prize in 2019.
This year's shortlist of Gaja Capital Business Book Prize honours the painstaking pursuit of notable homegrown businesses. Titles delve into HDFC Bank’s digital revolution, the Unicorn story of Flipkart, the 70-year journey of Hero, the exposé of Ranbaxy, the riveting account of Bigbasket’s leadership, and the bold and adventurous journey of a Venture Capitalist in India. These chronicles of Indian business stories are canonising the struggle and joys of entrepreneurship, creating a repository of pioneers and their experiences.
Commenting on the shortlist this year, Manish Sabharwal, Chairman Teamlease and Chairman of the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize Jury, said "A poet once said that the universe isn't made of atoms but stories. The Gaja Capital Business Book Prize jury felt the shortlist this year has multiple stories of triumph and tragedy yet mostly reflects a new breed of confident, ambitious and rising corporate India."