Anu Sridharan, 26

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR Co-founder and CEO, Next Drop, Bangalore and Hubli

After moving to India from the US in 2011, she decided to start a pilot project for water management in Karnataka. Today, NextDrop gives over 19,000 people updates on piped water supply. “You just have to give us a missed call. And we will send you a text message every day an hour before water is due in your neighbourhood,” she says. Sridharan has also worked for a water and sanitation project in Mumbai slums called ‘Haath Mein Sehat’. BLOCKED “When we started out in Hubli, we got some 10,000 addresses but couldn’t locate them on a map. We had to spend over a year creating technology that could map addresses and phone numbers in the area.” PLAN AHEAD Cover all civic services such as electricity, information, gas and education. Expand into Mysore. TUNED IN She is a Bharatanatyam dancer. “When I’m stressed out, it helps me relax.”

by Sonali Acharjee