Banker and New York based- author Ruchir Sharma was awarded the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award for his Breakout Nations: In Pursuit of the Next Economic Miracles at the Mumbai Litfest on Sunday.
Mr. Sharma, who was unable to attend, was presented the prestigious honour along with a cash prize of 1 lakh on day four of the festival by R. Gopalakrishnan, Director, Tata Sons.
“It’s a distinct privilege to be recognised at such an illustrious platform and I thank Tata Literature Live! and the kind jurors for bestowing me with this award,” said Mr. Sharma, in a message read out on his behalf.
The authors shortlisted included Nilanjana Roy (The Wildings), Sudha Shah (The King in Exile), Sudheendra Kulkarni (Music of the Spinning Wheel), Naresh Fernandes (Mahal Foxtrot), Ruchir Sharma (Breakout Nations) and Aman Sethi (A Free Man) whose books were all introduced by journalist and jury member Dileep Padgaonkar.
The other jury members included Anil Dharker, Santosh Desai, Ashutosh Pandey and Siddharth Shanghvi.
Mr. Sharma is the Managing Director and Head of the Emerging Markets Equity team at Morgan Stanley Investment Management and has been a long-time contributing editor with Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The New York Times and Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Sharma has also been writing a regular column on global financial markets since 1991.
Germinating from his experiences of having spent one week each month in emerging markets for the past 15 years, “Breakout Nations” takes a penetrating look at the countries he believes are likely to flourish, or fail, in the years ahead. The book gives a clear picture of the shifting balance of global economic power and how it will play out for emerging nations and the West.
Despite giving a country-by-country account, the book avoids dry statistics and economic theories and reveals how to spot economic success stories.
“Tata Literature Live! First Book Award is an initiative to recognise and reward writers via just embarking on literary career,” said Anil Dharker, Festival Director.
“What we have seen in the two years of the awards existence is that quite a wonderful selection of books makes it to the short list and it’s an extremely difficult task for the jury to select just one book out of the short list.”
“We strongly believe that bestowing this award resonates the ethos and values of the Tata Group,” added Atul Agrawal, Vice-President - Corporate Affairs, Tata Services, “We hope our initiative provides Indian writers with encouragement at an early stage, so that we may enjoy more quality literature by them in the years to come.”
