Images: Rajkummar Rao: Sachin Gokhale Richa Chadda, Shraddha Kapoor: Getty Images Huma Qureshi, Alia Bhatt: Getty Images
FASHIONMasaba Gupta, 25Fashion designerMasaba Gupta’s style is fierce and bold, with a play on colours and cuts. Under the label ‘Masaba’, she showcased her first collection, ‘Kattran’, at Lakme Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2010 in the Gen Next category. She won the Most Promising Designer of the Year award there. Her label currently retails at over eight leading stores in India. The youngest creative director at Satya Paul, she is reinterpreting the brand with a refreshing twist. -BJR Ruchika Sachdeva, 26 Fashion designerAfter graduating from London College of Fashion, Sachdeva moved to India to set up her own label, ‘Bodice’. In London, she worked with prestigious designers like Vivienne Westwood and Giles Deacon. Her label takes inspiration from menswear, history and other contemporary influences and translates them into androgynous garments with quixotic elements. She has won prestigious awards, including Elle India Style Award for ‘The Breakthrough Designer’, and the Grazia Young Fashion Award for ‘The Best Urban Collection’.-BJR FINANCEHarsh Agarwal | 25Founder, AGacquisitionsAt 19, Harsh Agarwal had already made profits of Rs 50 lakh from investing in IFCI and Reliance Petroleum. Later, he worked with Deutsche Bank as one of the youngest to assist in managing assets over $75 million while advising global PE funds on their India investments. With brother Kanishka, he started AGacquisitions in 2013, a hedge fund in the long-short style. Arun Kumar, CEO, Strides Arcolab, says Agarwal has it in him to grow AGacquisitions into one of the largest hedge funds in India. – Pravin Palande
FOODGirish Nayak, 28Pastry chef, Olive Beach, BangaloreNayak’s ‘coolest’ memories as a tot were framed sitting atop a kitchen shelf, from where he would watch his grandma bake. He’s come a long way since, putting himself through the Culinary Institute of America, New York, training under Johnny Iuzzini (Top Chef Just Desserts judge), washing dishes to make ends meet and learning the art of classic French desserts with a playful American touch. He returned in 2010 and joined Olive Beach where many diners are willing to skip a course to pack in a plate of his signature lemon mousse. - KC
Srishti Handa/ Siddhartha Kumar| 28/27 Directors, The Temperamental ChefHanda and Kumar love to serve up oxymorons: Ready-to-eat vegetarian snacks minus preservatives. They want urban homes to drop those potato nuggets, and bite into baked spinach bolts. After three years as marketing manager in a frozen food company, Handa launched TTC in December 2012. Kumar, who works and lives in Singapore, is the investor and mastermind behind most recipes. The duo has outsourced production to cut costs, but Handa handles all other aspects—distribution, marketing, logistics—herself. She sells in Delhi/NCR, and is looking to move to western India this year.- KCImage: Girish Nayak: Kunal Chandra
LAW, POLICY & POLITICSArghya Sengupta | 29Founder and research director, Vidhi Centre for Legal PolicyHow does one explain the Nuclear Liability Bill to a group of MPs? In 2010, Arghya Sengupta was called upon to do just that. That small step laid the foundation for the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. His aim: To make the legislative and regulation phase in lawmaking more robust so that fewer disputes arise. Sengupta graduated with a gold medal from that National Law School in Bangalore. He went to Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship, where he went on to do his masters and a PhD in judicial independence and accountability.-SS NGOs & SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP Shubhendu Sharma| 29director, Afforestt Environmental Conservation ServicesThis innovative company creates natural forests using native trees. Using the Miyawaki Method, which makes forests grow ten times faster than normal plantations, Afforestt creates dense self-sustaining forests in just a few years, in spaces as small as 1,000 sq ft. It has created more than 100,000 sq ft of forests in three years.- Udit Misra & Peter Griffin Jithin C Nemudala | 27 CEO, Make a Difference (MAD)This commerce graduate has worked with the orphaned since 2005. MAD is India’s largest NGO mentoring orphans, with 2,000 volunteers teaching 5,000 kids across 23 cities. Two alumni have earned scholarships for graduate studies in the US and two more will soon join them. MAD also works on influencing policy required to ensure better-run orphanages. MAD is endorsed by Michelle Obama.- UM & PG
SOCIAL MEDIA / MOBILE / DIGITALDeepan Chakravarthy, Ramprasad Rajendran | 29, 29Co-founders, Sudoku Quest Their social mobile gaming company Hashcube, maker of Facebook game Sudoku Quest and several mobile apps, garnered 2.5 million users in just three years. Adopting a ‘freemium’ business model, they allow in-app purchases to make money and have clocked $100,000 as revenue. They now plan to take the Quest model to other classic games such as Minesweeper and Solitaire. “If safe money is your criteria then go for a job, but the huge upside of getting money and making it successful is never offered in a job,” says Chakravarthy. – Deepak Ajwani Angad Nadkarni | 20 Founder ExamifyNadkarni built Examify in January 2013 out of sheer frustration after he found himself running about to attend different tuition classes. He already has 10,000 users for the free web-app that offers prep-tests for class 10, 12 exams and IIT-JEE. The service analyses last 10 years’ question papers to recommend the most probable questions. It also offers regular prep-tests. Nadkarni is now planning a virtual paid marketplace where teachers can sign up to offer study material and test papers students rate them based on their satisfaction level. DA
Images: Shubhendu Sharma: Naresh Sharma Shubhendu: Nimish Jain
SPORTSPV Sindhu | 18Shuttler
Along with Saina Nehwal, Arjuna awardee PV Sindhu is leading the charge of Indian shuttlers on the global stage. She broke into the top 10 in 2013, and currently stands at 11. P Gopichand’s exploits on the court inspired the lanky Andhra teen to pick up her racket when she was eight, but she overtook her mentor in a decade, becoming India’s first woman and the first since Prakash Padukone in 1983 to win a medal (bronze) at the World Championships. -KC
Deeya Bajaj | 19Cross-country skierDeeya Bajaj has conquered the mountains with as much élan as she has conquered the seas. A certified scuba diver and kayaker, she braved sub-zero conditions at 14 when she tagged along with her father on a kayaking expedition in Greenland. She returned to the stubborn ice caps at 17 and became the youngest person to undertake the Trans Greenland Skiing Expedition in the process, she raised funds for an orphanage in Uttarakhand. – KC Shiva Thapa | 20BoxerThe bantamweight is a medal hope for the 2016 Rio Olympics after he became the youngest Indian boxer to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics. His impressive medals haul led to him being poached by the USA Knockouts, a franchise in the World Series of Boxing tournament. He’s already a major force in the Asian scene. He’ll need to learn to take big hits from stronger men if he wants to compete on the world stage. At just 20, time is on his side. – SB P Harikrishna | 27Chess PlayerIndia’s No. 2 Chess player is used to being compared to Vishwanathan Anand—his win percentage is 61 percent to Anand’s 61.6 and current world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen’s 61.3 percent. Hari, the 2011 Asian Champion, became India’s youngest Grandmaster in 2001, aged 15. Not surprisingly, the Junior World Champion and Arjuna awardee is getting better and better, with a rating of over 2700 (Anand’s is closer to 2800).– SB Amit Kumar | 20WrestlerSushil Kumar’s wrestling bronze medal at 2008 Beijing Olympics had a big part in propelling the profile of the sport in India. Now, agile Amit Kumar (55 kg), from humble Haryana beginnings, is taking on the world, shoulder to shoulder with Sushil. At London 2012, he became the youngest wrestler to represent India at the Olympics and won silver at last year’s World Championships in Budapest. Ten years of hard work are starting to pay off. – SBImages: Gaganjeet Bhullar: Ross Kinnaird / Getty Images PV Sindhu, Shiva Thapa: Getty Images Cheteshwar Pujara: Vivek Prakash / Reuters P Harikrishna: The Hindu Amit Kumar: Getty Images
