Note : This article first appeared in the October Issue of India Today. This is a post for all those who have not yet gone through the hard-copy or would like to read a much shorter version of the same. And sorry for the delay.
It’s a young nation,and the promise of the demographic dividend is multiplying. Thirty-five young Indians show the way with innovation, gumption and determination.
Karun Chandock – F1 Race Driver
He inherited the passion for racing from his father Vicky,also a professional racer in the 1980′s. Karun won the Formula Asia Championship in 2001 when he was just 17. Eight years later, he is raring to go and is part of the Hispanic Racing F1 team for 2010 where he will partner the Brazilian Bruno Senna.
Vikramaditya Motwane – Filmmaker
Accompanying his mother, production manager Dipa De Motwane on shoots was always a chore. He wanted to be an engineer. He was 17 when his mother asked him and his friends to help out with a DD show, Teen Talk. That is when he discovered his true calling. He went on to assist Sanjay Leela Bansali on Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Deepa Mehta on Water. Also co-wrote Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal and Dev.D with Anurag Kashyap. His first feature film Udaan, made it to the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard Section.
D. Udaya Kumar – Creator of Rupee Symbol
Born in a small village in Kallakurichi, his parents moved him to Chennai when he was five and it was a teacher in school who spotted his innate talent. D. Udaya Kumar is a Ph.D in design from IIT-Bombay’s Industrial Design Center (IDC) and is currently a design professor at IIT-Guwahati. He was also IIT-Bombay’s Best Outgoing Sportsman of thr Year in 2001.
Sushil Kumar – Freestyle Wrestler
Never did this Jat bus driver’s son imagine that he would be the worldwide poster boy for wrestling. He has been practising for since he was 12. It was in 1998 that he was noticed internationally when he won Gold Medal at the World Cadet Games in Poland. This was soon followed by another gold at the Asian Junior Wrestling Championship in 2000 and the Arjuna Award in 2007 and finally became the first Indian wrestler to hold the title of World Champion.
Hamdullah Sayeed – Lok Sabha Member
In the general elections held last year, Sayeed became the youngest Lok Sabha member. A corporate lawyer by profession, he was working with Fox Mandal & Little in Delhi. He was all set to leave for the UK fo his masters, but had to abandon his plans to join politics after his father’s sudden death in 2005. His efforts towards bringing attention to Lakshadweep’s concerns on climate change are being highly appreciated. He also articulated India’s position at the Climate Change Summit at Copenhagen in December 2009, very well.
Ajjay Agarwal – Chairman and MD, Maxx Mobiles
He dropped out of class IX from Mumbai’s Children’s Academy and joined his father’s electronicd trading business. Today, Ajjay heads the country’s fifth largest mobile phone brand. From a Rs. 5-lakh start-up in 2004, it is now a staggering Rs. 920 crore company.
Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra - Artist-Communicators
The small-town boys from Ludhiana went to learn fine art at the Delhi College of Art. Former art directors from the ad world, versatile artists Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra expresses themselves in painting, sculptures and installations. They worked together at O & M, before debuting with a solo show at Nature Morte in 2005. Their work has eight-figure price tags, is frequently auctioned at Sothebys and has been snapped up by art czar Frank Cohen as well as po star Elton John, strangely making them the very icons of what they parody.
Amit Trivedi – Music Director
It’s hard to escape Amit Trivedi’s music , not that one would want to. The mint-fresh National Award winner from Mumbai began his tryst in Bollywood with Amir, and consolidated his credibility with Dev D. His childhood fascination for music became a passion during his days at Rizvi College in Bandra. The commerce graduate became a part of a fusion band, “Om” and even released an unsuccessful album. Later he met singer Shilpa Rao at a film festival. She in turn introduced him to Anurag Kashyap who was then looking for a composer for a remake of Devdas. Then, Wake Up Sid, Udaan & Aisha followed.
Krishna Mohan Reddy – Director, Prince Dance Group
Determination, inspiration and attitude. Krishna Mohan Reddy has all this and more. He calls himself a dancer without training. A young man from Berhampur, a town known as the cultural capital of Orissa , Reddy became a dancer by watching films & TV programmes. In 2005, after completing high school, Reddy chose seven boys between 15 and 22, mostly labourers from Behrampur and formed the Prince Dance Group. Within a very short time , the group became a runner up in Boogie Woogie and won in the India’s Got Talent.
Naman Ahuja – Academic
Whether he’s teaching postgraduate students of JNU’s School of Arts and Aesthetics or delivering a series of public lectures at India International Centre on the aesthetics of 200 BC-300 A.D India, the doctorate from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, has sexed up academics. Currently he’s a fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library.
Devika Bhagat- Screenplay Writer
She announced her arrival with a finely scripted noir film Manorama Six Feet Under and then switched genres to pen a romantic comedy Bachna Ae Haseeno. The Convent of Jesus and Mary, Delhi, alumnus tweaked Jane Austen’s Emma to create smart one-liners for the uber chic gang of Aisha. Trained to be a writer and director at New York University, her first step in the film industry was as a post production intern for Monsoon Wedding.
Rohan Bopanna – Tennis Player
The son of a Coorg coffee planter, Bopanna started playing tennis when he was 11. Recognising his talent, his father took him to Nandan Ba’s tennis academy in Pune. In 2002, he made his Davis Cup debut for India against Australia. Currently ranked 19 in ATP Doubles.
Athira Krishna – Violinist
She first performed as Carnatic violin soloist when she was nine. At 15, she made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for her spectacular 32-hour, non-stop concert. But her proudest moment came when she was awarded the National Award for Excellence in Music in 2007.
Lokesh Bhardwaj – Bharatnatyam Dancer
Thirteen years ago, a 20-year-old boy in Mathura would wake up at four in the morning, practice Bharatnatyam for some hours, then board a second-class compartment of a Delhi-bound train and after a two-hour journey would reach his destination, Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra in Delhi. An alumnus of the London Contemporary Dance School, the yoga enthusiast also honed his acting skills under theatre guru Barry John.
Basharat Peer – Writer
Being one of the voices of curfewed Kashmir is not easy. But Basharat Peer has done it with sensitivity and sensibility. Starting from a small village in Anantnag, the writer of Curfewed Night, one of the most moving memoirs about living in post-militancy Kashmir, went to Aligarh after high school.
Uttam Teron – Founder, Parijat Academy
Seven years before teh Right to Education Bill was introduced in Parliament, Uttam Teron, a young man from Pamohi, 20 km from Guwahati, dreamt of 100 percent literacy for the children of his village. Born to a train driver father, Teron started Parijat Academy in 2003 with four students. Today it has 502 students and a hostel.
Kangna Ranaut – Actor
Born and brought up in a small town called Bhambla in Mandi district in Himachal Pradesh, Kangna moved to Delhi at the age of 16. Her first stage performance in Delhi was in Girish Karnad’s Tale Danda. In 2004, Anurag Basu spotted her at a cafe in Mumbai and offered her the lead role in Gangster. The rest, as they say is history.
Vivek Gilani – Founder of Mumbai Votes
When Vivek Gilani first became eligible to vote, he wracked his brains over who to vote for. This was impossible as there was a dearth of information on politics. Mumbai Votes (MV) became the answer in 2004. The website keeps a tabs on 1,450 politicians. A former environmental engineer in the US, he also co-founded No2co2 i 2008, an environmental consultancy farm.
Sikkil Gurucharan – Carnatic Vocalist
He’s miles away from the image of a classical musician, sporting jeans and a T-shirt. An iPod fanatic and music blogger, he’s one of the youngest to receive the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for excellence in Carnatic music.
Gyanesh Pandey – CEO and Co-founder, Husk Power System
It was the desire to work in the village that brought Gyanesh Pandey, an electrical engineer from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), to Bihar from Los Angeles where he was working as a senior yield enhancement engineer with a company called International Rectifier. Pandey established Husk Power Systems (HPS), which uses rice husk to generate electricity , with Manoj Sinha and Ratnesh Yadav. Today, HPS supplies 8 to 10 hours of power to 18,500 households.
Saima Iqbal – Conservation Architect
For Saima Iqbal, who graduated in architecture from MSIA, Bijapur, and joined INTACH in 2004, restoring Kashmir’s cultural sanctity is a mission. With a degree from UK, she has not only helped in mapping Srinagar’s cultural resources by boldly walking its bylanes but also worked on the conservation of the 15th century Aali Masjid and the World Heritage status proposal for Kashmir’s six Mughal Gardens.
Cheteshwar Pujara – India A Captain
At 12, he stood at the crease for nine hours and scored 306. Last year, within a week, he hit two triple hundreds and followed it up with another in the same month. He shot into the limelight when he finished the 2006 Under-19 World Cup as its highest scorer with 349 runs.
Rikin Gandhi – CEO, Digital Green
An aerospace engineer from MIT and a licensed private pilot, who was accepted to the US Air Force, he now finds himself a hero among the farmers in India. Gandhi decided to use his handycam as a tool for social networking. The method was simple : the farmers record their problems, solutions and success stories and the Bangalore- based Digital Green, an NGO headed by Gandhi, ensures these videos reach those who need them most.The NGO which received a $3-million grant for three years from the Gates Foundation, has covered over 300 villages and aided over 17,000 farmers in India.
Karan Bajaj – Writer
An IIM Bangalore graduate and a brand manager for Kraft Foods, New York, he was just another suit until the release of his book Keep Off The Grass. His second book Johnny Gone Down, confirmed his status as a bestselling author. He’s also the only Indian born executive ever selected in Advertising Age‘s Top 40 under 40 US Marketers list in 2007.
Kaushiki Chakraborty – Hindustani Classical Singer
Even before she could speak, Kaushiki Chakraborty had developed the art of reproducing the musical notes she was coaxed into singing by her mother, her first guru. Later her musician father, Ajoy Chakraborty, introduced her to to his guru, Pandit Jnan Prakash Ghosh. She was a scholar at Kolkata’s ITC Sangeet Research Academy, where she studied for 13 years. Kaushiki, a postgraduate in philosophy, has won a BBC Radio 3 World Music Award and also recorded a song for A.R. Rahman in Deepa Mehta’s Water.
Cyrus Driver – Founder of Calorie Care
Founder of India’s first Calorie-counted healthy meal delivery service that ensures 1,000 customers across Mumbai each day, Cyrus Driver’s journey to entrepreneurship was no accident. After IIT-Bombay and IIM-Ahmedabad, Driver, the son of a fighter pilot, joined JP Morgan Partners in Mumbai and then in Singapore. Soon he started mapping out a healthy food company with dieticians and nutritionists. The company has been growing at 30 per cent each year since it started in 2005.
Mukul Srivastava – Assistant Professor, Department of Mass Communication, Lucknow University
For Mukul Srivastava, innovation is the key to NewGen journalism. In state universities where funds are always a matter of concern, he employs digital resources to make education accessible to all. Mixing audio-video with newspaper clippings, Srivastava uses blogs, discussion groups and social networking sites to present the world as he sees it.
Gagan Goyal – Founder and CEO, Thinklabs Technosolutions
Gagan Goyal, an IIT Bombay graduate started Thinklabs Technosolutions in 2005, with a $1 million funding from the Indian investment firm Seedfund. Today, its training modules are being used in 18 schools and 200 engineering colleges, covering more than 31,000 students.
G.V. Prakash Kumar – Music Director
Music was not his first love, even though he is the nephew of A.R. Rahman. Or perhaps, because of it. The boy who wanted to grow up to be Sachin Tendulkar, failed to get into the school cricket team, joined the cultural team. Having made his debut at five, when he sang a few lines of a song in Gentleman for which his uncle had scored music., he later played the keyboard in the troupe of the Mozart of Madras. He dropped out of school after Class XI, did a diploma in sound engineering and made the music for the Tamil film Veyil at the age of 18.
Suresh Ranjan Goduka – Poet and Social Worker
His forefathers migrated to Assam from the erstwhile Rajputana a century ago. Suresh Ranjan Goduka is among the leading Assamese poets of his generation. He gave up a documentary filmmaking career in Delhi and went back home in 2004 to start Jeevan, a monthly Assamese magazine, which seeks to explore the diversity, beauty and infinite possibility of life.
Udhayanidhi Stalin – Producer
The grandson of Tamilnadu Chief Minister, M.Karunanidhi, Udhayanidhi Stalin grew up in a family of filmmakers. Nothing escapes the attention of the producer of films such as Kuruvi and the latest cross-cultural romance Madrasapattinam, whether it is sitting on script sessions or deciding the marketing blitz.
Adhyapak Bhabananda Barbayan – Sattriya Dancer
Born into a family of farmers in Majuli, Assam, Adhyapak Bhabananda Barbayan was sent to Uttar Kamalabari Sattra, a prominent Vaishnavite monasteries of Assam, at the age of three. From the very next year, he started learning Sattriya dance. Today, he has taken the dance form beyond Sattra boundaries and performed in several countries including France and Portugal.
Indrani Medhi – Associate Researcher, Microsoft Research India
Guwahati-born and Bangalore-based tech researcher Indrani Medhi is leveraging her NIT-Nagpur architecture degree and post graduate learning in design from the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, to help illiterate communities around the world embrace technology without a hitch. Tweaking technology tools, she has conducted field research in India, South Africa and the Philippines to design text-free interfaces that could help illiterate and semi-literate people find jobs, get medical information, and use cellphone-based banking services.
Sattyakee D’Com Bhuyan – Founder and Director of D’RAMA, The Passion Players
Despite his high-profile job with the World Bank, Sattyakee D’Com Bhuyan’s mission is to popularize Western theatre in the North-East. At 23, he became the youngest director of English plays in the North East when he staged Tennesse William’s A Streetcar Name Desire. He took to the stage at the age of seven. Now, he plans to quit his job at 40 to be there forever.
Rujuta Diwekar – Sports Nutrinionist
She’s the sports nutritionist behind Kareena Kapoor’s size zero figure. Born to an engineer father and a professor mother, Rujuta Diwekar chose to go against the grain, unlike her sister who is an IIM graduate. After post-graduation in sports science and nutrition from SNDT College in Mumbai, she set up her own gym in 1999. Her first book Don’t Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight, sold over two lakh copies and earned her a loyal following
It’s a young nation,and the promise of the demographic dividend is multiplying. Thirty-five young Indians show the way with innovation, gumption and determination.
Karun Chandock – F1 Race Driver
He inherited the passion for racing from his father Vicky,also a professional racer in the 1980′s. Karun won the Formula Asia Championship in 2001 when he was just 17. Eight years later, he is raring to go and is part of the Hispanic Racing F1 team for 2010 where he will partner the Brazilian Bruno Senna.
Vikramaditya Motwane – Filmmaker
Accompanying his mother, production manager Dipa De Motwane on shoots was always a chore. He wanted to be an engineer. He was 17 when his mother asked him and his friends to help out with a DD show, Teen Talk. That is when he discovered his true calling. He went on to assist Sanjay Leela Bansali on Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Deepa Mehta on Water. Also co-wrote Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal and Dev.D with Anurag Kashyap. His first feature film Udaan, made it to the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard Section.
D. Udaya Kumar – Creator of Rupee Symbol
Born in a small village in Kallakurichi, his parents moved him to Chennai when he was five and it was a teacher in school who spotted his innate talent. D. Udaya Kumar is a Ph.D in design from IIT-Bombay’s Industrial Design Center (IDC) and is currently a design professor at IIT-Guwahati. He was also IIT-Bombay’s Best Outgoing Sportsman of thr Year in 2001.
Sushil Kumar – Freestyle Wrestler
Never did this Jat bus driver’s son imagine that he would be the worldwide poster boy for wrestling. He has been practising for since he was 12. It was in 1998 that he was noticed internationally when he won Gold Medal at the World Cadet Games in Poland. This was soon followed by another gold at the Asian Junior Wrestling Championship in 2000 and the Arjuna Award in 2007 and finally became the first Indian wrestler to hold the title of World Champion.
Hamdullah Sayeed – Lok Sabha Member
In the general elections held last year, Sayeed became the youngest Lok Sabha member. A corporate lawyer by profession, he was working with Fox Mandal & Little in Delhi. He was all set to leave for the UK fo his masters, but had to abandon his plans to join politics after his father’s sudden death in 2005. His efforts towards bringing attention to Lakshadweep’s concerns on climate change are being highly appreciated. He also articulated India’s position at the Climate Change Summit at Copenhagen in December 2009, very well.
Ajjay Agarwal – Chairman and MD, Maxx Mobiles
He dropped out of class IX from Mumbai’s Children’s Academy and joined his father’s electronicd trading business. Today, Ajjay heads the country’s fifth largest mobile phone brand. From a Rs. 5-lakh start-up in 2004, it is now a staggering Rs. 920 crore company.
Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra - Artist-Communicators
The small-town boys from Ludhiana went to learn fine art at the Delhi College of Art. Former art directors from the ad world, versatile artists Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra expresses themselves in painting, sculptures and installations. They worked together at O & M, before debuting with a solo show at Nature Morte in 2005. Their work has eight-figure price tags, is frequently auctioned at Sothebys and has been snapped up by art czar Frank Cohen as well as po star Elton John, strangely making them the very icons of what they parody.
Amit Trivedi – Music Director
It’s hard to escape Amit Trivedi’s music , not that one would want to. The mint-fresh National Award winner from Mumbai began his tryst in Bollywood with Amir, and consolidated his credibility with Dev D. His childhood fascination for music became a passion during his days at Rizvi College in Bandra. The commerce graduate became a part of a fusion band, “Om” and even released an unsuccessful album. Later he met singer Shilpa Rao at a film festival. She in turn introduced him to Anurag Kashyap who was then looking for a composer for a remake of Devdas. Then, Wake Up Sid, Udaan & Aisha followed.
Krishna Mohan Reddy – Director, Prince Dance Group
Determination, inspiration and attitude. Krishna Mohan Reddy has all this and more. He calls himself a dancer without training. A young man from Berhampur, a town known as the cultural capital of Orissa , Reddy became a dancer by watching films & TV programmes. In 2005, after completing high school, Reddy chose seven boys between 15 and 22, mostly labourers from Behrampur and formed the Prince Dance Group. Within a very short time , the group became a runner up in Boogie Woogie and won in the India’s Got Talent.
Naman Ahuja – Academic
Whether he’s teaching postgraduate students of JNU’s School of Arts and Aesthetics or delivering a series of public lectures at India International Centre on the aesthetics of 200 BC-300 A.D India, the doctorate from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, has sexed up academics. Currently he’s a fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library.
Devika Bhagat- Screenplay Writer
She announced her arrival with a finely scripted noir film Manorama Six Feet Under and then switched genres to pen a romantic comedy Bachna Ae Haseeno. The Convent of Jesus and Mary, Delhi, alumnus tweaked Jane Austen’s Emma to create smart one-liners for the uber chic gang of Aisha. Trained to be a writer and director at New York University, her first step in the film industry was as a post production intern for Monsoon Wedding.
Rohan Bopanna – Tennis Player
The son of a Coorg coffee planter, Bopanna started playing tennis when he was 11. Recognising his talent, his father took him to Nandan Ba’s tennis academy in Pune. In 2002, he made his Davis Cup debut for India against Australia. Currently ranked 19 in ATP Doubles.
Athira Krishna – Violinist
She first performed as Carnatic violin soloist when she was nine. At 15, she made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for her spectacular 32-hour, non-stop concert. But her proudest moment came when she was awarded the National Award for Excellence in Music in 2007.
Lokesh Bhardwaj – Bharatnatyam Dancer
Thirteen years ago, a 20-year-old boy in Mathura would wake up at four in the morning, practice Bharatnatyam for some hours, then board a second-class compartment of a Delhi-bound train and after a two-hour journey would reach his destination, Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra in Delhi. An alumnus of the London Contemporary Dance School, the yoga enthusiast also honed his acting skills under theatre guru Barry John.
Basharat Peer – Writer
Being one of the voices of curfewed Kashmir is not easy. But Basharat Peer has done it with sensitivity and sensibility. Starting from a small village in Anantnag, the writer of Curfewed Night, one of the most moving memoirs about living in post-militancy Kashmir, went to Aligarh after high school.
Uttam Teron – Founder, Parijat Academy
Seven years before teh Right to Education Bill was introduced in Parliament, Uttam Teron, a young man from Pamohi, 20 km from Guwahati, dreamt of 100 percent literacy for the children of his village. Born to a train driver father, Teron started Parijat Academy in 2003 with four students. Today it has 502 students and a hostel.
Kangna Ranaut – Actor
Born and brought up in a small town called Bhambla in Mandi district in Himachal Pradesh, Kangna moved to Delhi at the age of 16. Her first stage performance in Delhi was in Girish Karnad’s Tale Danda. In 2004, Anurag Basu spotted her at a cafe in Mumbai and offered her the lead role in Gangster. The rest, as they say is history.
Vivek Gilani – Founder of Mumbai Votes
When Vivek Gilani first became eligible to vote, he wracked his brains over who to vote for. This was impossible as there was a dearth of information on politics. Mumbai Votes (MV) became the answer in 2004. The website keeps a tabs on 1,450 politicians. A former environmental engineer in the US, he also co-founded No2co2 i 2008, an environmental consultancy farm.
Sikkil Gurucharan – Carnatic Vocalist
He’s miles away from the image of a classical musician, sporting jeans and a T-shirt. An iPod fanatic and music blogger, he’s one of the youngest to receive the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for excellence in Carnatic music.
Gyanesh Pandey – CEO and Co-founder, Husk Power System
It was the desire to work in the village that brought Gyanesh Pandey, an electrical engineer from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), to Bihar from Los Angeles where he was working as a senior yield enhancement engineer with a company called International Rectifier. Pandey established Husk Power Systems (HPS), which uses rice husk to generate electricity , with Manoj Sinha and Ratnesh Yadav. Today, HPS supplies 8 to 10 hours of power to 18,500 households.
Saima Iqbal – Conservation Architect
For Saima Iqbal, who graduated in architecture from MSIA, Bijapur, and joined INTACH in 2004, restoring Kashmir’s cultural sanctity is a mission. With a degree from UK, she has not only helped in mapping Srinagar’s cultural resources by boldly walking its bylanes but also worked on the conservation of the 15th century Aali Masjid and the World Heritage status proposal for Kashmir’s six Mughal Gardens.
Cheteshwar Pujara – India A Captain
At 12, he stood at the crease for nine hours and scored 306. Last year, within a week, he hit two triple hundreds and followed it up with another in the same month. He shot into the limelight when he finished the 2006 Under-19 World Cup as its highest scorer with 349 runs.
Rikin Gandhi – CEO, Digital Green
An aerospace engineer from MIT and a licensed private pilot, who was accepted to the US Air Force, he now finds himself a hero among the farmers in India. Gandhi decided to use his handycam as a tool for social networking. The method was simple : the farmers record their problems, solutions and success stories and the Bangalore- based Digital Green, an NGO headed by Gandhi, ensures these videos reach those who need them most.The NGO which received a $3-million grant for three years from the Gates Foundation, has covered over 300 villages and aided over 17,000 farmers in India.
Karan Bajaj – Writer
An IIM Bangalore graduate and a brand manager for Kraft Foods, New York, he was just another suit until the release of his book Keep Off The Grass. His second book Johnny Gone Down, confirmed his status as a bestselling author. He’s also the only Indian born executive ever selected in Advertising Age‘s Top 40 under 40 US Marketers list in 2007.
Kaushiki Chakraborty – Hindustani Classical Singer
Even before she could speak, Kaushiki Chakraborty had developed the art of reproducing the musical notes she was coaxed into singing by her mother, her first guru. Later her musician father, Ajoy Chakraborty, introduced her to to his guru, Pandit Jnan Prakash Ghosh. She was a scholar at Kolkata’s ITC Sangeet Research Academy, where she studied for 13 years. Kaushiki, a postgraduate in philosophy, has won a BBC Radio 3 World Music Award and also recorded a song for A.R. Rahman in Deepa Mehta’s Water.
Cyrus Driver – Founder of Calorie Care
Founder of India’s first Calorie-counted healthy meal delivery service that ensures 1,000 customers across Mumbai each day, Cyrus Driver’s journey to entrepreneurship was no accident. After IIT-Bombay and IIM-Ahmedabad, Driver, the son of a fighter pilot, joined JP Morgan Partners in Mumbai and then in Singapore. Soon he started mapping out a healthy food company with dieticians and nutritionists. The company has been growing at 30 per cent each year since it started in 2005.
Mukul Srivastava – Assistant Professor, Department of Mass Communication, Lucknow University
For Mukul Srivastava, innovation is the key to NewGen journalism. In state universities where funds are always a matter of concern, he employs digital resources to make education accessible to all. Mixing audio-video with newspaper clippings, Srivastava uses blogs, discussion groups and social networking sites to present the world as he sees it.
Gagan Goyal – Founder and CEO, Thinklabs Technosolutions
Gagan Goyal, an IIT Bombay graduate started Thinklabs Technosolutions in 2005, with a $1 million funding from the Indian investment firm Seedfund. Today, its training modules are being used in 18 schools and 200 engineering colleges, covering more than 31,000 students.
G.V. Prakash Kumar – Music Director
Music was not his first love, even though he is the nephew of A.R. Rahman. Or perhaps, because of it. The boy who wanted to grow up to be Sachin Tendulkar, failed to get into the school cricket team, joined the cultural team. Having made his debut at five, when he sang a few lines of a song in Gentleman for which his uncle had scored music., he later played the keyboard in the troupe of the Mozart of Madras. He dropped out of school after Class XI, did a diploma in sound engineering and made the music for the Tamil film Veyil at the age of 18.
Suresh Ranjan Goduka – Poet and Social Worker
His forefathers migrated to Assam from the erstwhile Rajputana a century ago. Suresh Ranjan Goduka is among the leading Assamese poets of his generation. He gave up a documentary filmmaking career in Delhi and went back home in 2004 to start Jeevan, a monthly Assamese magazine, which seeks to explore the diversity, beauty and infinite possibility of life.
Udhayanidhi Stalin – Producer
The grandson of Tamilnadu Chief Minister, M.Karunanidhi, Udhayanidhi Stalin grew up in a family of filmmakers. Nothing escapes the attention of the producer of films such as Kuruvi and the latest cross-cultural romance Madrasapattinam, whether it is sitting on script sessions or deciding the marketing blitz.
Adhyapak Bhabananda Barbayan – Sattriya Dancer
Born into a family of farmers in Majuli, Assam, Adhyapak Bhabananda Barbayan was sent to Uttar Kamalabari Sattra, a prominent Vaishnavite monasteries of Assam, at the age of three. From the very next year, he started learning Sattriya dance. Today, he has taken the dance form beyond Sattra boundaries and performed in several countries including France and Portugal.
Indrani Medhi – Associate Researcher, Microsoft Research India
Guwahati-born and Bangalore-based tech researcher Indrani Medhi is leveraging her NIT-Nagpur architecture degree and post graduate learning in design from the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, to help illiterate communities around the world embrace technology without a hitch. Tweaking technology tools, she has conducted field research in India, South Africa and the Philippines to design text-free interfaces that could help illiterate and semi-literate people find jobs, get medical information, and use cellphone-based banking services.
Sattyakee D’Com Bhuyan – Founder and Director of D’RAMA, The Passion Players
Despite his high-profile job with the World Bank, Sattyakee D’Com Bhuyan’s mission is to popularize Western theatre in the North-East. At 23, he became the youngest director of English plays in the North East when he staged Tennesse William’s A Streetcar Name Desire. He took to the stage at the age of seven. Now, he plans to quit his job at 40 to be there forever.
Rujuta Diwekar – Sports Nutrinionist
She’s the sports nutritionist behind Kareena Kapoor’s size zero figure. Born to an engineer father and a professor mother, Rujuta Diwekar chose to go against the grain, unlike her sister who is an IIM graduate. After post-graduation in sports science and nutrition from SNDT College in Mumbai, she set up her own gym in 1999. Her first book Don’t Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight, sold over two lakh copies and earned her a loyal following
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