The New India Foundation has announced the establishment of the New India Foundation Book Prize for non-fiction books. The prize will be awarded each year to a non-fiction book about any aspect of India since Independence, and comes with a cash award of Rs 15 lakh.

The foundation, which awards fellowships to scholars and writers researching the history of independent India, organises lectures, and publishes books on the history and culture, said the book prize will build on its existing mission and purpose. The prize has opened nominations for 2018 with books published in the 2017 calendar year being eligible for this year’s prize. Books originally written in English as well as those translated to English are eligible for the prize which does not place any restriction on the nationality of the author. Entries for this year’s prize will be accepted till April 15 and the winning title will be announced in October 2018 at the Bangalore Literature Festival.

The prize jury comprises of the trustees of the foundation, who also award the 5-10 fellowships that are given out each year. It consists of Infosys co-founder and former UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani, historian Ramachandra Guha, Chairman and co-founder of Teamlease Services Manish Sabharwal, and Srinath Raghavan, historian and Senior Fellow at Centre for Policy Research. New India Foundation fellows will be ineligible for the award.