Here are the winners!
Here’s who made it to the top spot as HT City felicitates 30 young Indian achievers of 2021
ARCHITECTURE NG ARUN PRABHU Founder, The Billboards Collective
His novel design entails a portable house on an auto rickshaw! Driven by his findings that people might spend ₹4 to 5 lakh building a house sans a toilet, the architect chose to raise awareness about smallscale architecture for affordable housing and more space.
FITNESS & NUTRITION HARSH KEDIA CEO/Founder and Chef - A Diabetic Chef
He is India’s first ‘diabetic’ chef, running a cloud kitchen that serves sugar-free desserts and milkshakes for the diabetic and health conscious. Last year, he launched vegan and diabetic-friendly chocolates.
INTERIORS DIVITA ANJESH Founder & CEO, Reclaimed Wood Furnishings
After graduation in 2019, she left job offers in the UK, returning to India, and Reclaimed Wood was born. It harnesses the potential of old and salvaged wood to build furniture which is economical and has a lower carbon footprint.
SOCIAL MEDIA YASHRAJ MUKHATE Music Composer
Yashraj Mukhate is best known for his Rasoda parody, where he mixed rap beats with a scene from a television soap opera, in August 2020, which went viral. He once again broke the internet with his track, Tauda Kutta Tommy, Sadda Kutta Kutta in 2020, and now Pawri Hori Hai.
ADVENTURE JEHAN DARUVALA Racing Driver
Jehan Daruvala created history in December 2020, as the first Indian to win Formula2. The RedBull Racing Junior won at Sakhir GrandPrix weekend. An exmultiple International Karting Champion, he is the only Indian to win a Grand Prix, and the only Indian to finish in the top three of an FIA World Championship.
BEAUTY AANAM CHASHMAWALA Beauty Blogger and Influencer
In the lockdown, she held workshops for more than 130 budding content creators over 40 days. She’s also a social entrepreneur with her What When Wear Wardrobe initiative. It gives 100% of sales proceeds to charities in the field of education and health.
LITERATURE AANCHAL MALHOTRA Writer-Oral Historian
She’s written extensively on the Partition. Remnants of a Separation, her first book, marked the 70th year of Independence. She’s also the co-founder of Museum of Material Memory - a digital repository tracing family histories and social ethnography.
STYLING KSHITIJ KANKARIA Founder And Creative Director, SOAK & Editor-In-Chief, Dirty Magazine
He is the creative director and communication head of Katkoot Italia, an Italybased artisanal wine brand, and creative director for Ayurveda-inspired perfume brand Ayu. He partnered with NGO Atma, to back the Apprenticeship Project for creative education of underprivileged students.
ART AYUSH KALRA Artist/Illustrator
Ayush Kalra’s illustration, titled Fair? My Jutti!, propelled a debate on colourism and went viral on social media, with 10 lakh shares. A design college drop-out, he is redefining art for the young with his venture, Ayush Kalra Designs, with projects such as album cover for Raja Kumari’s song Shanti.
FOOD ADVAIT KUMAR Co-founder, Swajal
Swajal, a start-up founded in 2014, uses solar power and AI to make water purification affordable. The pandemic posed new challenges of hygiene and of maintaining water containers. Advait’s Swajal came up with a new cost effective hands-free system which is suitable for Indian conditions.
MUSIC SANJEETA BHATTACHARYA Singer-Songwriter, Actor
Trained at Berklee College of Music, Boston, she’s equally at ease with Balkan music, flamenco, jazz, as she’s with pop and folk. She has been included in Spotify’s global emerging artist programme, RADAR, which has artistes from over 50 markets worldwide.
SPORTS HIMA DAS Athlete, U-20 Champion
The Arjuna Awardee is the first-ever athlete and first Indian woman to win a gold medal in any format of a global track event at the International Association of Athletics Federation’s World U20 Championships. She won medals at Asian Games 2018, Jakarta, and holds the national record in 400m. She came sixth in the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
BOLLYWOOD SIDDHANT CHATURVEDI Actor
His debut, Gully Boy (2019), has established him as the most sought-after actor. He has an interesting slate of films lined up — Phone Bhoot, Bunty Aur Babli 2, Yudhra and Shakun Batra’s next. During the lockdown, Chaturvedi turned singerlyricist and released his debut music video, Dhoop.
DESIGN BINISH DESAI Chairman, EETech Group
From experimenting with chewing gum and paper at the age of 11, to fighting the menace of medical waste piling up amid the Covid-19 crisis, Binish Desai, The Recycle Man of India, is creating eco-friendly bricks out of PPE kits as well as masks made from nonwoven fabric.
HARTEERATH SINGH
Community Development Director, Hemkunt Foundation SPECIAL JURY AWARD The 19-year-old has been doing exceptional work for Covid relief. He says, “It’s an honour to be recognised by the jury. The credit goes entirely to the handful of pure beings— my team and volunteers, who allowed us at Hemkunt Foundation to do the work we do and supported us.
ANKUSH KAUL
PRESIDENT, SALES AND MARKETING AT AMBIENCE GROUP “Ambience Group presents HT City 30 Under 30 has not just been about recognising promising leaders, but also envisioning a brighter India. A special mention for our jury members for guiding the process. We have finally found our 30 champions!”
LUXURY SHUBHIKA JAIN CEO and Founder of RAS Luxury Oils
Her brand offers natural, vegan and cruelty-free luxury skincare products. Being a ‘farm-to-face’ venture, it partners directly with farmers. Through this venture, she champions the cause of sustainability, animal welfare and community building.
SPIRITUALITY PONG RE RINPOCHE Buddhist Philosopher, Content Creator and Social Activist
Rinpoche embodies ancient wisdom and modern knowhow with a global vision. His charitable trusts set up in 2020 are committed to building schools, medical centres, developing sustainable environmental projects and restoring sacred Himalayan sites.
MODELLING NIKITA CHAWLA
Model, Author, Anchor, Motivational Speaker
A food critic, fashion, travel and lifestyle influencer, she was a published author at the age of 16. Her talks have inspired people. As a globetrotter and an influencer, she has worked with various tourism boards such as those of Egypt, Kenya and Russia.
THEATRE AINEE FAROOQUI & NUSRAT ANSARI Dastangos
This duo has performed narratives ranging from Indian folk tales to Alice in Wonderland. As young torchbearers of the age-old oral art form of Dastangoi, so far a male bastion, Ansari believes they can spread positive messages and Farooqui feels they can help break the classroom teaching of history.
DANCE ATISHA PRATAP SINGH Kuchipudi Dancer
She found her calling in dance at 3, and has been performing and learning Kuchipudi from Padma Bhushan Raja Radha Reddy and Kaushalya Reddy for 18 years. Currently she’s pursuing Bachelors in Fashion Management and training to get her commercial pilot licence.
GAMING AND ANIMATION DIVAKAR KUPPAN Animation Filmmaker, Visiting Faculty - Kerala State Institute of Design
He believes animation is the highest form of expression of art. Kuppan won Best International Animation Film, Mumbai International Film Festival 2020, and an honourable mention at the 2021 Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival.
OTT ADARSH GOURAV Actor
He shot to fame after his latest project, The White Tiger, was nominated for the Oscar and BAFTA awards. His performance got a BAFTA nomination for Best Lead Actor, but he lost out to Anthony Hopkins. Gourav has won the Rising Star award at The Asian World Film Festival.
TECHNOLOGY ATHARVA PESHKAR AI Researcher
An undergraduate AI (Artificial Intelligence) researcher, he, with three batchmates, developed Detectd — an AI based Deepfake platform to verify AI manipulated media and counter disinformation. Team Detectd was the India Champion (out of 353) and world finalist for Microsoft Imagine Cup (in top 39 out of 10,000 teams globally).
EDUCATION HANEEN FARID AND DISHA PANDA Founder, Project Arambha
The duo started Project Arambha, in collaboration with the NGO 1M1B (1 Million for 1 Billion), to support college education and secure the future of underprivileged girls in the age group of 16-22 years, by raising funds and helping them secure employment.
HEALTH & WELLNESS SUHANI JALOTA Founder & CEO, Myna Mahila Foundation
Amid the lockdown, Jalota reached out to women through her menstrual hygiene company, Myna Mahila Foundation, with an eight-point plan which included sanitary and ration relief, manufacturing and distributing face masks, a women’s helpline and more.
PHOTOGRAPHY AVANI RAI Photographer
She has done notable work on Kashmir. Her other works – Denial of home as a form of violence, exclusion and culture erasure – have won acclaim. Daughter of veteran photographer Raghu Rai, she has shot cities during the pandemic and highlighted social issues through her camera.
TELEVISION SHANTANU MAHESHWARI Actor, Dancer, Host and Choreographer
A choreographer-turnedactor with the show Dil Dosti Dance, Maheshwari has not only mentored young dancers, but in 2020 he judged an International dance competition, representing India along with judges from France, Netherlands, South Africa and Canada.
FASHION KARAN TORANI Fashion Designer
Torani was a little voice that began with four karigars, from his living room. With a sustainable approach, they use azofree dyes and minimum plastic in all packaging. Also, fabric waste is utilised in a yearly range of upcycled hangbags and pouches, resulting in a zero-waste policy.
HOSPITALITY HARSH MANDAVIA Co-Manager, Harsh Thali and Parathas
Last May, Harsh and his mother Heena Mandavia, who run a Mumbai eatery, began serving free meals. Till date they have given over 23,000 meals, 58,000 rotis, 7,000 home made sweets and 800 immunity booster balls to the needy, and feed 150-200 daily.
SOCIAL WELFARE JYOT JEET SABARWAL Chairperson, Disaster Management Cell, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sewa Dal
A Covid survivor, he has cremated bodies of over 600 Covid-19 patients. His team transports Covid-19 suspected cases and patients from home to hospital/isolation centre and back.
TRAVEL ARAVIND SANKA, PAVAN GUNTUPALLI & SR RISHIKESH Co-founders, Rapido
Their bike taxis are in 100 cities across India. In the lockdown, they focused on Rapido’s delivery service for essentials as the bike taxi service came to a halt. They did not charge commission from the drivers during this period.