Overview
- The ceremony was held on December 3 at The LaLiT Mumbai, where journalist Bachi Karkaria presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Shanta Gokhale.
- Jury Awards named Ruchir Joshi for Great Eastern Hotel (Fiction), Manu S. Pillai for Gods, Guns and Missionaries (Non-fiction), Duvvuri Subbarao for Just a Mercenary? (Business & Management), Varsha Seshan for The Wall Friends Club (Children’s Books), and Manoj Kuroor with translator J. Devika for The Day the Earth Bloomed (Translations).
- Popular Choice winners selected by readers included Prajakta Koli for Too Good To Be True (Fiction), Mohar Basu for Shah Rukh Khan (Non-fiction), Sudha Murty for Grandpa’s Bag of Stories (Children’s Books), Thomas Mathew for Ratan Tata: A Life (Business & Management), and Sadhguru for Enlightenment (Mind, Body & Spirit).
- A 15-member jury with three representatives per category adjudicated the jury prizes, with jurors such as Vaishna Roy, Mandira Nayar, Poonam Saxena, Deepak Dalal, Sonu Bhasin, and Sruthijith KK attending to present awards.
- Crossword Bookstores leaders Aakash Gupta and Nidhi Gupta praised the winners and emphasized the awards’ role in guiding readers to impactful Indian writing.