The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, aims at "promoting Indian literature throughout the world".

[1][2] The inaugural edition of the award recognised works in twelve languages – Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

It can be a "creative" or a "critical" work; translations, anthologies, abridgments, compilations, annotation, and research papers are ineligible.

[1] The Akademi will prepare a "ground list", shortlisted from a set of eligible books in each of the recognized languages.

[1] The preliminary panel consists of ten referees, who are nominated by the President upon requests received from the members of the "Advisory Board".

The recommendations received from members of the "Advisory Board" of each languages will be compiled and sent to the corresponding referees, who in turn will select two entries.

The Akademi purchases the books recommended by the referees in the preliminary round and sends them to the jury members and the Convener.