Following an engaging conversation with the shortlisted authors, the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize 2025 was presented at Gaja Talks
Mumbai, India – December , 2025– “Accelerating India’s Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective Governance” by renowned Indian economist Karthik Muralidharan has won the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize 2025, for its rigorous and accessible blueprint to unlock India’s next phase of growth through stronger state capacity and effective public service delivery. This landmark work systematically examines India’s governance challenges, especially in education, health, social protection, and jobs and sets out evidence-based, state-level reform strategies to ensure that growth translates into widespread improvements in citizens’ lives.
Karthik Muralidharan currently serves as the Tata Chancellor’s Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego, and holds a PhD from Harvard University. Drawing on over two decades of research, policy engagement, and field experience, Muralidharan combines academic depth with practical insight to demonstrate how better-designed institutions, smarter public spending, and stronger state capacity can dramatically improve development outcomes. The book stands out for translating complex economic and governance ideas into an actionable roadmap for policymakers, practitioners, and citizens interested in a more inclusive and effective Indian state.
The award was conferred at Gaja Talks 2025, a gathering of entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and thinkers that shines a spotlight on ideas shaping 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
Gopal Jain, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Gaja Capital, said, “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.”
Manish Sabharwal, Chairman of the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize Jury, commented, “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.”
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. The Prize, now in its seventh edition, has emerged as a benchmark recognition for authors who illuminate India’s entrepreneurial journeys, institutional evolution, and broader economic and social transformation.
About the winning author and book
A graduate of Harvard University and the University of Cambridge, Karthik Muralidharan spent a decade as a consultant at the World Bank before transitioning to academia. His research spans development, public, 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, in 2019, 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.
“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—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 serves as a valuable guide for anyone interested in understanding India’s economic trajectory.
About Gaja Capital
One of India’s premier alternative asset management firms, Gaja Capital provides growth capital to ambitious entrepreneurs to build the future champions of the Indian economy. Founded in 2004, Gaja Capital has established itself as India’s first institutional and independent private equity firm with a strong track record of performance and value creation. Gaja Capital is recognised as a partner of choice by emerging Indian companies and top-tier global and domestic institutional investors.
Gaja Capital was founded by Gopal Jain, Ranjit Shah, and Imran Jafar — a group of seasoned indigenous professionals with an established track record of investing and operational management in India. Some of Gaja Capital’s investments include TeamLease, Lighthouse Learning, RBL Bank, John Distilleries, Vishal Retail, Avendus, Xpressbees, Ei, Leadsquared, Signzy, Eggoz, Fractal Analytics, and Weaver Services (People Home),
About the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize:
The Gaja Capital Business Book Prize was established in 2019 and carries a purse of INR 20 lakhs for the winner. It honours authors and their works which celebrate the spirit of entrepreneurship, economics, and business leadership in India.
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 T.N. Hari and Bala Srinivasa; and “Entrepreneurs Who Built India – Lala Shri Ram: The Man Who Saw Tomorrow” by Sonu Bhasin.
The jury for this year’s edition comprises 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.
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