India : Penguin India, the country’s largest publishing house, has partnered with the Bangalore Business Literature Festival (BizLitFest) 2026 as Publisher Partner. The 12th edition of the festival will be held on Saturday, 31 October, at Koramangala Club.
The festival offers discounted tickets to students and business school faculty both for the festival and the workshops.
A key feature of this year’s festival is the ‘Pitch a Book Idea’ contest, open to aspiring business authors, especially founders and entrepreneurs with a story worth telling. At the festival, participants can submit in a two-page pitch, and from the first 25 entries received, 5 will be shortlisted to present their ideas to Avni TCA, Commissioning Editor, Penguin Business, Penguin Random House India, and receive her feedback.
Top 2 of the 5 selected will get an online mentorship session with a publicist from Penguin India, who will guide them on how to position and talk about their book idea. The session is designed as a learning and mentorship experience, giving participants candid feedback and practical guidance on shaping their book idea.
The festival also features 4 workshops. One of them, ‘How to Write an Amazing Business Book’, will be led by Avni TCA (Commissioning Editor, Penguin Random House India). The session looks at how to turn professional experience and hard-won lessons into a book that is clear, engaging and worth a reader’s time.
BizLitFest is India’s only business literature festival that promotes, celebrates and drives sharp, meaningful and impactful writing. It is a vibrant platform for authors, publishers and readers. So far, it has hosted close to 400 authors across its 11 annual editions in Bangalore and two editions in Hyderabad.
This year’s litfest; for the first time, features fascinating books on investing and stock markets, self-help, business turnarounds, and the fine nuances of finance and fiscal understanding. The centre of attention will be a book by Rukmini Rao on the entrepreneurial journey of the late Cafe Coffee Day founder V. G. Siddhartha.
BizLitFest is run by co-founders Benedict Paramanand, Editor of SustainabilityNext, Dr. V Raghunathan, a prolific author and former IIM Ahmedabad professor, and Shankar Parameshwaran, an editor with the Wharton School and former Resident Editor of The Economic Times. The core team includes Dr. Madanmohan Rao, MIT, Research Director at YoutStory; Kashyap Kompella, educator and author of several books on AI; Reena Pereira, a senior HR professional; and Debarati Ghosh, a communications executive at TCS.
The BizLitFest CK Prahalad Best Business Book Award is a key feature of the festival every year. This year’s jury includes – Sandhya Vasudevan, former MD of Deutsche Bank; Deepti Bhaskaran, Editor, Mint Money; and Lokesh Venkataswamy, Founder of innovation consulting firm Innomantra.
****