Ankit is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Leap Skills. He is the driving force behind the innovation and technology based approach at Leap. As an impact oriented skill-development organisation, Leap mentors’ train and provide employment opportunities to students, unemployed youth and existing workforce through technology and classroom training. Over the last 4 years, Leap has trained over 6000 learners across 11 states in India through various programs and workshops.
An alumnus of The Doon School and College of Business Studies, Delhi University. He brings with him significant start-up experience at organisations like Zomato, Happily Unmarried and has worked as a part of the Risk Advisory practice at Ernst & Young India. He is also the youth representative for Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Program, a youth focused recognition program for students from across the world. He has represented India at several award councils both domestically and internationally.
Anurag is a Delhi based musician and social worker singing verses of Kabir and Gandhi in folk fusion form for last 10 years. Anurag is one of the co-founders of a Delhi based choir band and non-profit Manzil Mystics. Manzil Mystics as a band write and compose songs based ideas of Kabir poetry and as a non-profit they setup music classrooms in government and low-income schools to create demand of music in education setting. Manzil Mystics believes that music creates a happy and safe space for everyone specially children in learning setting. Music is not just a piece of entertainment.
Ashwini is an Indian sprint athlete from Karnataka. The daughter of an arecanut farmer, she first discovered her speed while chasing cows, unaware that she was destined for the track. Her remarkable sprinting career helped India dominate middle-distance relays during the 2010s. Specializing in the 400 meters, she was awarded the Major Dhyan Chand Award in 2022 for her outstanding contributions to athletics.
Ayah is a technology leader and entrepreneur. She leads Mozilla’s AI strategy, driving open and trustworthy innovation across its ecosystem. For over a decade, Bdeir has leveraged technology to empower changemakers, with a focus on underrepresented communities. Before Mozilla, she founded littleBits, the revolutionary electronic building block that redefined STEAM education for millions of children worldwide. Recognized as one of the BBC’s 100 Most Influential Women, Bdeir has been featured has graced the covers of The New York Times Magazine, WIRED, and The Wall Street Journal. An alum of the MIT Media Lab and the American University of Beirut, she is also a TED Fellow and currently serves on the board of the Fund for Public Schools, supporting New York City’s 1,800 public schools.
Bilal Ghalib is an Iraqi American promoting the maker spaces (a “Do-It-Yourself”/ open-source platform) around the world. His makerspaces fostered ideas such as landmine detection systems and a heart monitor that works without the use of electricity, a limited resource in developing nations.
WEBSITE: bilalghalib.com
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Ishita is a feminist facilitator and independent advisor with 22 years of experience working with women and girls from underserved communities worldwide. She is also an Ashoka fellow. She has advised governments, philanthropies, and civil society groups, shaping policies on gender, education, and reproductive rights. She has served on advisory groups for the UN, UNESCO, and the Government of India. Currently, she is the Regional Representative for Echidna Giving and serves on the boards of Ipas and Population Foundation of India.
Kalyani is the Co-Founder of Inclov, the world’s first matchmaking app for people with disability and health disorders. Inclov is accessible to people with visual impairment and cerebral palsy amongst others. The app matches people on the basis of cure availability, medical condition, level of independence and lifestyle choices. Kalyani successfully crowdfunded Rs 6 lakhs for the prototype of this app with the help of 143 global backers, on India’s leading online crowdfunding platform, Wishberry.
Today, Inclov has 1000 matches within six months of its launch and Kalyani has demonstrated early success with two Inclov users getting married in May 2016
Mahesh was moved by the plight of HIV+ children when he first got a detailed look into their lives and problems back in 2008 whilst he was on a volunteering project. During this process he observed that there were many HIV + children, most of them orphans with no shelter and no one to care for them.
He began adopting HIV children and considered opening a hostel for them. Unable to find good rentals owing to the associated social stigma, Mahesh persuaded his family to help him provide accommodation to the children in his home.
Today the Mahesh Foundation has 55 HIV+ infected children in their home, 1,600 children who benfit through educational & nutritional support , over 28,000 HIV+ infected people positively impacted through various programs & 60+ full time employees working hard to achieve their goals
Neha Bagaria is the founder & CEO of JobsForHer, an online platform to connect women with companies, community and skilling to start, restart and rise in their careers. Over the last five years, JobsForHer has worked with over 1.7 million women, 7000+ companies, 1000+ mentors and 400+ reskilling partners across India to enable women to accelerate their careers.
JobsForHer is not Neha’s first entrepreneurial venture. Right after she graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Neha founded her first company Paragon, an educational startup to bring the Advanced Placement Program to India. When marriage brought her to Bangalore, she started working with Kemwell, a biopharmaceutical manufacturing company, in the fields of HR, Finance and Marketing strategy.
Neha took a 3.6-year break in her own career when she had her children. During this personal journey, she became aware of the various difficulties a woman faces in order to re-enter the workforce. She then became committed to the cause of enabling women to accelerate their careers and founded JobsForHer.com on International Women’s Day, 2015.
Neha has been listed in Forbes India’s WPower Trailblazers list of 25 ground breaking women achievers as a game-changer and innovator who is shattering stereotypes, and was also featured by Deccan Herald as “19 Changemakers to Watch Out For in 2019”.
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Noorie Sadarangani is an urban designer and the founder of Obataimu, a Mumbai-based fashion label and design studio. Sadarangani created Obataimu with a vision to blend comfort with versatility. Her designs combine homewear fabrics with multifunctional styles, making them suitable for both private and public settings.
Through Obataimu, Sadarangani challenges conventional fashion norms by merging traditional craftsmanship with contemporary design, embracing a slower, more intentional approach to fashion. Her commitment to sustainability is reflected in Obataimu’s made-to-order model, which minimizes waste and emphasizes thoughtful production.
She has also been acknowledged for her inventive work in creating narrative products and experiences using disappearing, antiquated manual industrial processes found in Mumbai’s informal sectors. To preserve these fading skills, she established artisan schools to train and formalize floating talent. This initiative enabled the transformation of everyday items — typically mass-produced in factories — into handcrafted pieces without significantly increasing costs.
In her efforts to promote sustainable practices, Sadarangani also set up a dedicated dyeing atelier in Gujarat. Her work has been widely recognized, including features in publications like Vogue India.
Philip Obaji Jr. is the founder and general coordinator for the 1 GAME Campaign, which promotes basic primary education for vulnerable kids in Nigeria. Philip traveled from house to house – urging parents to send their children to school and created a book center, where poor school children can get exercise books and pens for free.
Philip also started a community project, Off The Streets, for street children who are facing challenges of exclusion from school, ignorance, recruitment into insurgent groups, neglect and abuse. As a result of their work, more than 100,000 children in northeast Nigeria, a region devastated by violence and terror, are enrolled in school and have access to writing materials.
WEBSITE: play1game.org
Backyard Creators is a medical devices company started by twin founders – Raman and Lakshmanan during their 4th semester of college. The company is focused on providing cost-effective solutions to medical conditions faced by weaker sections of society especially in India and neighboring countries. The first such solution is a highly affordable externally wearable ear device – Impulse, that helps people born with congenital hearing loss to gain their ability to hear.
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While serving in the US military, Robin had a bone to pick with her big bosses: along with several other activists, she campaigned against the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy, which forbade lesbians, gay and transgender people from serving openly. Herself a lesbian and survivor of abuse, Robin’s interest in girls’ and women’s issues led her to work with NGOs around the world for 10 years before starting her own NGO in Mumbai to challenge the status quo. Kranti empowers girls from Mumbai’s red-light areas to turn round the ‘victim’ status and become agents of social change.
Website: kranti-india.org
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Listed by Forbes as one of Asia’s most influential under 30 year olds, Samyak leads X Billion Labs – an eco system of impact enterprises. Through his unique ability to align different stake holders such as governments, private sector & grassroot organizations – he is building future relevant businesses in areas such as employability, agriculture, population control, healthcare and rural development. He is currently developing a skilling model to enable India’s youth to remain professionally relevant in a digital economy (Skill Lab), an information access platform for rural Indian youth (Netpar – Tech Lab) and a behavior change model to positively influence people’s choices (Action Lab). In the past, he has founded some of the country’s pioneering youth platforms such as Operation Black Dot, The Indian International Model U.N, The Green Batti Project, Youthportal.in, UN Young Changemakers Conclave & Nimaya Foundation which have collectively engaged a million + young citizens.
Through all his work, Samyak’s core aim is to enhance the quality of life & raise the standard of living for India’s next billion
The 26-year old Sarvesh founded Zorba along with his Guruji, India’s Happiest Chain of Yoga studios in 2013 when he was just 21 years of age. An ardent cricket fan,he was Vice Captain of the Tamil Nadu cricket junior team and has subsequently had the privilege to travel with the Rajasthan Royals and Kochi Tuskers for 3 years as an official net bowler to the teams. Even though cricket was his first love he had realized that yoga was more than just an hour’s practice, it was a way of life, and thus, the journey of Zorba began.
Zorba thrives on the principle of using yoga, mindfulness and beyond as the tool with which to empower people to lead happier and healthier lives. Despite preconceived notions that yoga is largely for the elderly and is best suited to only improve flexibility, Sarvesh wanted to capture the 500+ million people in India under the age of 30 years, with a mission to make yoga – which is the unification of mind, body, and spirit – appealing and enjoyable to all giving birth to the 25 interesting forms of yoga that forms the core of Zorba’s program. Connecting seven billion breaths is Zorba’s ultimate goal. Currently, zorba is spread across 75+ studios in 38+ cities in India with an extremely exciting global expansion plan.
A charismatic speaker with an entrepreneurial spirit, Sarvesh has shared his story and revelations at conferences like the INK conference, TEDx, UN’s Youth Change Makers Conclave and has been featured by CNBC Young Turks, Bloomberg TV, Forbes, BTVi and various other channels and publications. Sarvesh was named India’s Youngest CEO in the Health and Wellness Sector by Bloomberg and was named by Better Homes & Gardens as one of the Top 10 people in India to watch out for
Shekhar Naik, born in 1986 in Shimoga, Karnataka, is an inspirational sportsperson. Despite being born blind, he began playing cricket in 1997 after surgery restored partial vision in one eye. Overcoming significant physical and economic challenges, his determination and talent led to remarkable achievements.
As the former captain of the Indian Blind Cricket Team, Shekhar led India to its first-ever T20 Blind Cricket World Cup win in 2012 and the Blind Cricket World Cup victory in 2014 against Pakistan. Under his leadership, India also dominated bilateral series against England and Australia. His exceptional performance earned him multiple awards, including Man of the Series and Best Batsman.
Recognized with the prestigious Padma Shri in 2017 and the Karnataka Rajyotsava Prashasti award, Shekhar has actively promoted blind cricket in India through the Samarthanam Trust, positively impacting over 25,000 blind cricketers. His journey is a testament to resilience and dedication, making him a true champion and source of inspiration.
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Srikanth Bolla was the first visually challenged student in India permitted to study science beyond grade 10. Since then, he has blazed new trails with Bollant Industries, an organization that employs uneducated and disabled employees to manufacture eco-friendly disposable consumer products and packaging solutions. They also offer adhesives, printing inks, printing products and intermediate products for disposable product manufacturers. Bollant Industries now operates five manufacturing units and has sales crossing USD 70 million each year
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Sunil’s goal is to help Indians bridge the ‘language’ and ‘digital’ divides, due to the dominance of English on the internet and in technical published texts. He has developed digital dictionaries for mobile phones and computers with a repository of 9.6 million audio and textual words in 16 domains, like Legal, Agriculture and Pharmacy, in 22 different Indian languages. Educated in Marathi-medium in a village near Nashik, Sunil believes the root of the rural inferiority complex is the linguistic divide, due to which many abandon their education. He hopes to reverse this with his free platform
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Sushant Pattnaik is a serial innovator, entrepreneur, and motivational speaker. He has several innovations that have made the critical transition from idea to working prototype. One of his first innovations was ‘Breathing Sensor Apparatus’ to assists physically challenged people to operate an electronic wheel chair that uses changes in the breathing. Through this technology, they can even type messages in a specially designed cell phone for better communication. He has been awarded the President’s award six times for his inclusive innovations. Sushant is also helping unsupported inventors take their creations to the next level through his startup InThinks.
In recent years, Pattnaik has focused on revolutionizing battery technology. Sushantinvented a battery that charges in less than a minute. He co-founded Capattery, working on cutting edge, innovative battery technology. In 2024, Capattery was recognized as a runner-up in the Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers’ Association (IEEMA) startup awards, highlighting its contributions to green energy solutions.
Tendekayi Katsiga is the Co-Founder of Deaftronics-Botswana, a company which produces high quality, low cost solar powered hearning aids made by people who are deaf for people with a hearing loss. He is part of a team which developed the first rechargeable hearing aid battery, which lasts for 2-3 years and can be used in 80% of hearing aids on the market today. It is solar powered and can be charged via the sun, household light, or a cell phone plug.
The Solar Powered Hearing aid is an open source product. Tendekayi focuses on responsible and value based leadershop relation to sustainable business. He is an INK Fellow but he also calls himself an ‘unreasonable’ fellow.
He studied at the Microniks Technical College, Dorval in Canada. He is a PACE Certified Instructor/Examiner. Featured in Newsweek, BBC, Wired. Daily edventures Post, I am Youngpreneur, The Heretic, and Smart Planet. Recipient of a South African Desginers Awards (DISA) and National Design for Development Award (NDDA). He has worked in Zimbabwe, Canada, Brazil, Jordan, South Africa and Botswana. Recently received Potential for Societal Impact Award in the 2015 GIST Tech-I Competiton.
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A special educator, accessibility trainer, a social activist, and a motivational speaker, Tiffany, a born fighter, did not let her disability become a hindrance in her journey forward! Despite all challenges, she steered ahead, with sheer determination. After completing her BA English, and her BED special education, she started a mobile blind school, where she went to the nooks and corners of her state in search of blind people, with an aim of transforming them from liabilities, to assets!! She then started the Jyothirgamaya Foundation, whose sole aim is empowerment and inclusion of visually impaired. As an activist, she charges at every opportunity to raise her voice for the rights of her community. As a lover of adventure she has done paragliding, skydiving and has enabled her students to do some of these adventures.
She has 5 ted talks to her credit, is a national award winner, and has also been appreciated by the Late DR APJ AbdulKalam former president of India, for her work.
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Trisha is a social activist, lawyer and UN Young leader for Sustainable Development Goals. Her work focuses on working with and for the youth towards the advancement of the UN’s SDGs by bringing a gender specific approach to multiple disciplinary areas.
SheSays is a youth-led NGO that stresses on civil society engagement to promote gender equality. SheSays functions are in the domains of sexual violence, education, healthcare and sanitation, security and public policy. The organisation has been leading the movement to eliminate sanitary napkin tax, under the viral campaign #LahuKaLagaan that got bipartisan political support.
So far, SheSays has successfully engaged more than 150,000 people. She has also mentored youth in the Arab region and Singapore in response to the SDGs. For her work, Trisha was recently recognised by President Obama as a civic leader and is a Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia, Class of 2017 listee under the Social Entrepreneurs and Pioneer Women categories.
Utkarsh Amitabh works at Microsoft and is the Founder of Network Capital, a global peer mentoring and career navigation platform with over 50,000 mentors active in 104 countries. He is passionate about using technology to match talent and opportunities, and was part of the team that built India’s first smart village which is now recognized in the Prime Minister’s book of pioneering innovations.
Utkarsh is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper who represented the community both at Davos and Dalian. He has an MBA from INSEAD where he was recognized as the Andy Burgess Scholar. He is a TEDx speaker, Penn Social Impact House Fellow, Raisina Young Fellow and the Torchbearer of Ashoka University’s Young India Fellowship. Utkarsh has a weekly column with Mint, one of India’s largest business newspapers, and his articles have been published by the World Economic Forum, Indian Express, The Economic Times, Times of India and Scroll. Utkarsh is also a trained actor and played “Major Metcalf” in the world’s longest running play.
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Veera is the CEO of Sustainable Living Lab, a sustainability consulting firm with operations in Singapore, Indonesia, India, and the US. He is concurrently the CEO of edm8ker, an ed-tech firm that delivers teacher professional development. He has more than a decade of professional experience in sustainability, foresight, corporate innovation, and AI skilling.
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