Between 2008 and 2019, it was awarded for first books published in India by an author of any age in the genres of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction and drama.
[6] In 2020, the new Shakti Bhatt Prize was awarded to incarcerated scholars and writers Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha.
[7] Between 2008 and 2019, the Award was open to nominations of first books published during the previous year in the Indian subcontinent within the categories of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama.
[3][9] Kamila Shamsie Samit Basu Mukund Padmanabhan Arshia Sattar Kalpana Swaminathan Ruchir Joshi.
Jai Arjun Singh Palash Mehrotra Tishani Doshi Basharat Peer Sunil Khilnani Niven Govinden Aatish Taseer Mridula Koshy Mohammed Hanif Krys Lee Mahesh Rao Janice Pariat Rohini Mohan Margaret Mascarenhas Sampurna Chattarji Raghu Karnad Prayaag Akbar Ruskin Bond Anand Teltumbde