Kavin Mittal, Sakshi Malik, Alia Bhatt among Forbes's 30 Under 30 Asia list

Kavin Mittal, Founder, Hike
Image: Amit Verma

More than 50 Indians, including entrepreneur Kavin Mittal, Olympic sportspersons Sakshi Mallik and Dipa Karmakar, and actress Alia Bhatt, have made it to the Forbes’s 2017 30 Under 30 Asia list released last week.

The annual initiative, now in its second year, honours a selection of 30 achievers across 10 categories such as Consumer Technology, Enterprise Technology, Entertainment & Sports, The Arts, Finance & Venture Capital, Industry, Manufacturing & Energy, Healthcare & Science, Social Entrepreneurs, Media, Marketing & Advertising, and Retail & E-commerce.

According to Forbes, there were more than 1,200 submissions out of which 300 applicants were selected by a panel of experts.

Apart from Mittal (29), whose messaging app Hike, boasts over 100 million users and rivals Whatsapp in India, some of the young entrepreneurs on the list include the inspirational Srikanth Bolla (25), Founder, Bollant Industries, who was born blind into a family of farmers in rural India and "went on to become the first international blind student at MIT", where he studied business management; and 19-year-old Bisan Deu, who has invented "Green Wood", a low-cost material made of rice waste which could be used to build housing for the underprivileged.

India’s first paralympic swimmer Sharath Gayakwad (25), who has won almost 100 medals nationally and internationally; and award-winning Hindi film actress Alia Bhatt (24) are also a part of the list in the Entertainment & Sports category.

Rana Wehbe, Senior Digital Editor, Asia at Forbes Media, said: “This year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list highlights the diversity of talent in this vast region, with 300 impressive young entrepreneurs from all walks of life pushing the boundaries of innovation. It’s fascinating to see how these millennials are using technology to disrupt their industries, empower their communities and overcome cultural barriers. Notably, this year’s list showcases a number of women in Asia who are advocates for social change and are defying stereotypes and prejudice to set a positive example for what women in this part of the world can achieve.”

The list includes representation from across 24 countries and 30 nationalities: ranging from China (76 honorees), India (53 honorees) and Southeast Asia to Australia (29 honorees).

Here are some of the Indian achievers in the 2017 Forbes’s 30 Under 30 Asia list:

Category: The Arts
Sanket Avlani (29), Curator, Taxi Fabric
Munaf Kapadia (28), Chief Eating officer, The Bohri Kitchen
Vaishnavi Murali (29), Founder, Eikowa Art

Category: Entertainment & Sports           
Fasil Ali (28), Martial Arts Coach, Ali's Sports Academy
Abhinandan Balasubramanian (26), Founder, Premier Futsal
Alia Bhatt (24), Actress, Entrepreneur
Sharath Gayakwad (25), Athlete
Dipa Karmakar (23), Athlete
Sakshi Malik (24), Athlete

Category: Finance & Venture Capital
Vaibhav Agarwal (30), Associate Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners
Abhishek Garg (28) and Riddhi Mittal (26), cofounders, Finomena
Arjun Malhotra (26) and Rohan Malhotra (26), Founding Partners, Investopad
Jatin Malwal (24) and Bhuvan Rustagi (29), Cofounders, Lendbox
Ashwin Srivastava (29), Cofounder, Idein Ventures

Category: Industry, Manufacturing & Energy
Srinivas Reddy Aellala (25) and Nalin Gupta (27), Cofounders, Auro Robotics
Srikanth Bolla (25), Founder, Bollant Industries
Ankit Parasher (26), Sudarshan Ravi (26) and Pushkar Singh (26), LetsTransport
Adarsh Manpuria (29), Cofounder, FabHotels
Ketan Mehta (28), Founder, Rays Power Infra
Anirudh Sharma (30), Social Impact Technologist, Graviky Labs

Category: Media, Marketing & Advertising
Kovid Gupta (28), Author
Mandovi Menon (27) and Varun Patra (27), Cofounders, Homegrown
Rohit Pothukuchi (26), Founder, Standard Indian Legal Citation

Category: Retail & Ecommerce
Chanakya Hridaya (27) and Rajesh Yabaji (28), Cofounders, BlackBuck
Ankit Deb (27), Founders, Bizongo
Shreya Mishra (28) and Pranay Surana (26), Cofounders, Flyrobe
Anjana Reddy (29), Founder, USPL
Shikha Ahluwalia (25) and Tushar Ahluwalia (29), Cofounders, StalkBuyLove

Category: Healthcare & Science
Saarthak Bakshi (29), Cofounder, International Fertility Centre
Enbasekar Dinadayalane (27) and Satish Kannan (27), Cofounders, DocsApp.in
Gaurav Aggarwal (24) and Shubham Maheshwari (23), Cofounders, Healofy
Ashwath Hegde (24), Founder, EnviGreen Biotech India
Akshay Navaladi (29), Founder, Healthskool Clinics
Richa Singh (30), YourDOST
Yogita Agrawal (23), Amanat Anand (24) and Shubham Issar (23), Cofounders, SoaPen
Harsh Songra (20) and Aafreen Ansari (20), Cofounders, Time Ahead

Category: Social Entrepreneurs
Aditya Agarwalla (23), Cofounder, Kisan Network
Ishita Anand (27), Founder, BitGiving
Debartha Banerjee (30), Director, Sampurn(e)arth Environment Solutions
Bisman Deu (19), Inventor, Green Wood
Ankit Kawatra (25), Founder, Feeding India
Triha Shetty (26), Founder, SheSays

Category: Enterprise Technology
Sudheendra Chilappagari (24), Cofounder, Belong.co
Hrishikesh Datar (29), Founder, Vakilsearch Legal Solutions
Abhinav Aggarwal (26) and Raghav Aggarwal (29), Cofounders, Fluid AI
Jaspreet Makkar (25), Founder, WeDoSky
Anand Prakash (23), Founder, AppSecure India
Abhinav Shashank (29), Cofounder, Innovaccer

Category: Entertainment & Sports           
Kavin Bharti Mittal (29), Founder, Hike
Sanjay Kumaran (15) and Shravan Kumaran (17), Cofounders, GoDimensions
Raghav Chandra (27) and Varun Khaitan (29), Cofounders, UrbanClap

Click here to view the full list: http://www.forbes.com/30-under-30-asia/2017/