The annual World Economic Forum’s 100 Young Global Leaders list released for the year 2017 have given place to five Indians for their innovative approaches.
Five Indians Include
- Vijay Shekhar Sharma: Founder & CEO PayTm
- Shruti Shibulal: The Tamara Hospitality
- Ambarish Mitra: Founder and CEO of Blippar, a mobile phone app
- Hindol Sengupta: Editor-at-large, Fortune India
- Rwitwika Bhattacharya-Agarwal: Founder and CEO of Swaniti Initiative.
About Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Vijay Shekhar Sharma was born in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. In 2005, he started One97 Communications which offered mobile content like news, cricket scores, ringtones, jokes and exam results. One97 is the parent company of Paytm, which was launched in 2010.
About Shruti Shibulal
Shruti Shibulal, daughter of Co-founder and former CEO of Infosys SD Shibulal, serves the hospitality sector and runs flagship luxury resort Tamara Coorg spread over a 170-acre estate that also produces coffee, cardamom, pepper, and honey despite providing hotel service to visitors.
About Ambarish Mitra
Ambarish Mitra is an Indian entrepreneur best known for founding Blippar, a visual search, artificial intelligence and augmented reality (AR) company based in the United Kingdom of which he is the CEO.
- Under Mitra’s leadership, Blippar has won several technology and innovation awards.
About Hindol SenguptaÂ
Hindol Sengupta, born in 1979 is an Indian journalist and entrepreneur, who is the award-winning author of seven books.
- He lives in Delhi and is currently Editor-at-Large at Fortune India. He was one of the youngest television journalists to have a prime time interview show, Talk Back on Bloomberg TV, at 28.
About Rwitwika Bhattacharya-Agarwal
Rwitwika is the founder of the Swaniti Initiative. Prior to working on Swaniti’s foundation, she worked at the World Bank as an Associate in the Growth and Competitiveness area.
- She is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Master in Public Policy program and specializes in the areas of youth employment. Â
Key Highlights of WEF’s 100 Young Global Leaders List
The list consisted of nine global leaders from South Asia, out of which five were from India. Besides, the list also had some persons of Indian origin in the US and Europe.
- The 2017 list of 100 Young Global Leaders has half nations from emerging economies that reflecting a trend towards greater diversity in global leadership. In addition, this year’s class also represents women in the majority.
- The report also shows that this year the class of 100 Young Global Leaders selected for five year programme is split evenly between business and not-for-profit sectors.
- Thus it is a great step towards building a global community of peers who can capitalise on diverse talents, experiences and networks to bridge gaps that exist in society and achieve more together than they could separately.
- The list includes the names ranging from pioneers in gene-editing to America’s youngest mayors.
About the WEF’s 100 Young Global Leaders
Each year, the World Economic Forum (WEF) selects 100 young leaders, under the age of 40, who are tackling the world’s most complex challenges with innovative approaches.
- These are the most innovative, enterprising and socially minded men and women who are pushing boundaries and rethinking the world around them.
- These YGL are invited to join a community and a five-year leadership journey that will help them break down silos, bridge cultures and use their collective skills to get things done for positive impact across private, public and civil society organizations.
