Nilay Agarwal, founder, Vishalakshi Foundation
Before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, Nilay Agarwal was fighting another pandemic. Through an initiative called Project Hunger, his NGO Vishalakshi Foundation, founded in 2019, had been distributing food and milk packets to homeless and underprivileged people. In a country where 7,000 people die of malnutrition and hunger every day, of which 3,000 are children, says 28-year-old Agarwal, it’s concerning that this problem has not been declared a pandemic. “The only vaccine we need for this pandemic is food. How difficult can it be for us to come together and eradicate this problem?” he says.