Gaja Capital Business
Book Prize 2020

Manish is a successful serial entrepreneur, currently co-founder and chairman of TeamLease Services. Manish also currently serves as an Independent Director on the Board of the RBI, as member of the Central Advisory Board on Education in the HRD Ministry and Member of Advisory Board of Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

Imran is a founding member of the Gaja Capital team and has over 22 years of experience in private equity, pharmaceuticals, and technology services. Imran has co-led investments in the education and consumer clusters. He holds an MBA from IIM Bangalore and a master’s degree in software engineering from BITS-Pilani.

Michael is a reputed successful global investment professional, currently Chairman of the University of Surrey. He was formerly Chief Executive of 3i Group plc and served as Chairman of the British Venture Capital Association. He is also serving as the Chairman of Thames Bridge Capital, where he provides strategic advisory to alternative asset managers and corporates.

Narayan is a successful investment professional and a keen social entrepreneur. He was earlier the country head of Morgan Stanley in India (2007-10). He had also previously led portfolio management of Morgan Stanley’s Global Emerging Markets and Global Asset Allocation teams, managing over US$25 billion in assets.

Neelkanth Mishra is currently the Chief Economist, Head of Global Research, and member of the Board in Axis Capital. Until recently, he was the Co-Head of Equity Strategy, APAC and India Equity Strategist, and Securities Research, at Credit Suisse. He is part of the Advisory Council to India’s 15th Finance Commission and has been an advisor to government committees such as the Revenue Neutral Rate Committee on GST and the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Review Committee.

Prithvi is a member of several capital market related committees of SEBI and has served as a member of the Indian finance minister’s high level expert committee on corporate bonds and securitization. Prithvi has worked as a consultant for the World Bank and U.S. Department of Commerce. In 1989, he set up Prime Database, India’s first and largest repository for all primary capital market offerings.

Shailesh Haribhakti is an experienced accountant and an independent board member of several leading Indian companies. He is also the Chairman of DHC (Desai Haribhakti) one of India’s leading accountancy and advisory firms. He is actively involved with several prominent financial institutions in India, including the NSE, CII, IMC and ASSOCHAM.

Upendra Kumar Sinha headed the RBI Expert Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). He was the Chairman of the SEBI, having served two consecutive three-year terms, starting in 2011. He was also the Chairman and Managing Director of UTI Mutual Fund. He was selected for the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) in 1976.

Tamal Bandyopadhyay, the Indian business journalist, known for his weekly column on banking and finance in Business Standard and Mint has authored over five books. His latest one is a narrative on the digital revolution within HDFC Bank, India’s largest bank by market capitalization, the seeds of which were sown in September 2014, when HDFC Bank MD, Aditya Puri, went to Silicon Valley to meet some of the brightest tech minds in the world. HDFC 2.0 is a fascinating account of the ambitious, digital transformation of a large, successful and traditional business in India and gives a sneak peek into what it takes to make that happen.

Hari TN, the head of HR at Big Basket is now known as the start-up HR guy. This IIT and IIM graduate, spent long years at Tata Steel, first as an engineer and then in Human Resources. Subramanian M S (Mani) currently heads the analytics function at bigbasket.com. Mani is a frequent speaker in industry and academic forums as an analytics expert. Saying No to Jugaad is a riveting account of how the start-up ecosystem in India evolved rapidly in the last 10 years. The book busts some of the common myths about e-commerce businesses and describes the evolution of grocery into one of the largest categories in ecommerce. It also is the story of how start-ups go through different and distinct stages as they evolve, and the courage needed to stand one’s ground when the world seems to have a contrarian view. The book is a detailed treatise around the relentless focus on customer centricity, foundation-building, and commitment to culture and values that has made Bigbasket one of India’s most successful start-ups.

Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman, Hero Enterprise is an intrepid entrepreneur, investor and recently-turned author with multiple passions and interests. This autobiographical account by him covers the lives and times of the four Munjal brothers who lived together and scripted a dramatic revolution on two wheels without any formal education or resources. At the same time, it’s also the story of how an agrarian economy like India, with limited means of transportation, took wing on the back of this two-wheel revolution. The book is a telling chronicle on the ‘family spirit’ that brought employees, customers, channel partners, suppliers, and local communities together to create success, welfare and well-being for millions over the past seven decades.

Katherine Eban Finkelstein, a contributor at Fortune magazine and Vanity Fair, is an investigative journalist and author based in Brooklyn, NY. Her investigative work has focused on public health and homeland security issues. Bottle of Lies is an informative, entertaining, and intriguing page turner telling the story of Ranbaxy from being the poster boy of the generic drug industry to its sensational fall from grace. The book is based on a detailed review of over 20,000 FDA documents and interviews with over 240 professionals unravelling the deeply trenched issues in much of the generic drug industry in India.

Co-founder and managing director of Helion Ventures, Rahul Chandra has seventeen years’ experience in venture capital investing and corporate development in technology products and services companies in India and the US. The Moonshot Game is a gripping, behind-the-scenes story of a VC’s journey, right from the beginning of the second start-up revolution in India in 2006 until the end of the funding frenzy in 2016. Chandra in this candid memoir tells us about his journey building one of India’s oldest VC firms, and gives readers an insight into the secret world of Venture Capital. The book is a ringside view of a story of greed and fear, large bets, big mistakes and the challenges of juggling several investments at the same time while building and scaling a successful VC firm over the last decade in India.