Accolades

Katha books have till date reached over 9 million children and won much recognition. Recognising Katha’s publishing venture for children, national boards of the CBSE and NCERT have named more than 124 Katha titles as ‘recommended readings’ for children in India in the year 2011-12. Moreover, the Directorate of Education (DoE) picked up 13 of our titles in 2018. Katha has been nominated six times by an international jury consisting of 100 experts for the world’s most coveted award in children’s literature, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award,
in 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016! Other than that, Katha’s books have won the Encouragement and Runner-up Prize at the Noma Concours for Picture Book Illustrations and an honourable mention at the Biennial at Bratislava and the Biennial of Asian Illustrations, Japan. Katha has also been honoured by the Ibby Honour List, the Darsana National Award, the Big Little Book Award for Illustrators and the Crossword Book Award.

• Business Standard Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2018 presented to Geeta Dharmarajan Business Standard Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2018 presented to Founder President Geeta Dharmarajan
• Aamu’s Kawandi was shortlisted for the prestigious The Hindu Young World Good Books Award 2017 in the illustrations category.
• 12 of Katha’s books were chosen in 101 Indian Children’s Books We Love by Young Zubaan.
• Moon, Ramu and I won The Darsana National Award 2011 for the Best Children’s Book.
• Bioscope included in the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) list in 2011.
• My Haiku Moments: An Activity Book for Young Haiku Lovers received Honourable Mention for Best Book for Children by the Haiku Society of America.
• The Princess with the Longest Hair received the Encouragement Prize Noma Concours 1989.
• The Song of a Scarecrow received an honourable mention at the Biennial of Illustrations 2003, Bratislava.
• One Lonely Unicorn received the Runner-up Award Noma Concours 2000, and the Biennial of Asian Illustrators Japan 2002.
• Daddoo’s Day Out received the Runner-up Award at the 10th Noma Concours.
• Chouboli and Other Stories, Volume II won the A K Ramanujan Book Prize for Translation 2012 and the Asian Publishing Award 2011 in the Best Book Category.
• Not Flowers of Henna, translated by Jai Ratan from Hindi, received the Jury’s Commendation at the Muse India National Award 2011.
• The Man from Chinnamasta by Indira Goswami was shortlisted for the Hutch Crossword Award 2006 in the category of Indian translations.
• The Survivors by Gurdial Singh was shortlisted for the Hutch Crossword Award 2006 in the category of Indian translations.
• The Heart Has Its Reasons by Krishna Sobti received the Crossword Book Award 2005.
• Katha was awarded the Kidsstoppress Award 2017 (Runner Up) in the Best Indian Book Publisher category by Kidsstoppress.
• Our story “Thayyaal” written in Tamil by Rupavati and translated in the English from our book “Seperate Journeys” by Katha’s founder and President Geeta Dharmarajan has been carried by Frontline, a fortnightly English language magazine published by The Hindu Group of publications from Chennai, India.
• Katha wins the FICCI Children’s Book of the Year Special Jury Award for 2019!

Other awards include, inter alia

• Katha’s Founder & President Geeta Dharmarajan was awarded the civilian honour of the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2012, for her extensive and inspiring work in the area of children’s publishing and pedagogy.
• Katha won the Promising Practices Award 2015 for its innovative StoryPedagogy™ for all grade levels.
• Winner of the NGO Transparency Award 2016 by GuideStar India.
• Winner of the Tech Museum Laureate award at the Stockholm Challenge in 2001.
• Finalist of the Stockholm Challenge Award 2002, an innovative award programme for innovative use of IT.
• Awarded the Millennium Alliance Award 2013 for our innovative I Love Reading programme by USAID and the Government of India.
• Awarded the ICICI India Inclusive Award 2012 by the ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth.
• North India Winner of the India NGO Awards for Quality Work, Accountability and Transparency 2009 by the Rockefeller Foundation and Resource Alliance, UK.
• Winner of the NASDAQ Stock Market Education Award 2002.
• Winner of the Social Enterprise Laboratory Award in 2002, by Digital Partners. Digital Partner’s Social Enterprise Laboratory Selection Committee chose Katha as “one of only 10 winners of Digital Partners’ Most Promising Social Enterprise for 2002 Award. This award is given in collaboration with the Indo-US Knowledge Trade Initiative to the most promising projects that are utilising the digital economy to empower the poor.”
• Katha was awarded the mBillionth Award in the year 2018 in the Early Stage category by DEF India for “leveraging innovation in storytelling and creating India’s first mobile reading application”.
• Katha emerged as the only winner for Excellence in Social Impact in the Education category at the 20th Polestar Awards 2018.
• “Dotted Lines” has been shortlisted in the Picture Book category of the Neev Book Award 2020.