Byju Raveendran & Gaurav Gupta on WEF’s Young Global Leaders list

Byju Classes’ founder Byju Raveendran and Zomato’s co-founder Gaurav Gupta are among the five Indians named by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in its new list of 115 Young Global Leaders. Raveendran, who launched Byju’s as a learning app in 2015, calls himself a teacher by choice and an entrepreneur by chance. Gupta’s Zomato has been a pioneering food technology start-up, which he launched as a table reservation business and then scaled it up across India, the UAE and Australia.

The other three Indians on the list:

• Tara Singh Vachani (CEO of Antara Senior Living), Vachani-led Antara Senior Living is focused on improving the lives of seniors and is billed as the first Indian venture creating vibrant residential communities that offer lifestyle with lifecare.
• Vinati Mutreja (Managing Director and CEO, Vinati Organics Limited), Mutreja-led Vinati Organics a specialty chemical company where she has applied innovative methods for selecting chemical processes and products that are environmentally attractive.
• Swapan Mehra (CEO, Iora Ecological Solutions), Mehra-led Iora Ecological Solutions is into climate action and ecosystem conservation in India.

These five Indians are joined on the 2020 list of Young Global Leaders list by US women’s football team co-captain Megan Rapinoe, world-renowned street artist JR, New Zealand’s first refugee parliamentarian Golriz Gharhaman, Finland’s youngest prime minister Sanna Marin, BBC News’s Africa Business Editor Larry Madowo and Xiaomi’s international business president Chew Shou Zi. The list also incudes Muhammad Hammad Azhar (Federal Minister for Economic Affairs in Pakistan), Ugyen Dorji (Minister of Labour and Human Resources, Bhutan) and Atika Rehman (UK Correspodent for Dawn.com, Pakistan)

What is WEF’s Young Global Leaders list?

Geneva-based WEF announcing the list of ‘change-makers’ from as many as 52 countries are working in areas ranging from revamping of health systems to investigating corruption while using their power of the under 40s to change the world. According to WEF, Under the age of 40, these individuals are among the most promising artists, activists, academics, executives and political leaders and they are “pushing boundaries, achieving firsts, innovating and breaking traditional rules to improve the world,”. These 115 individuals join the Forum of Young Global Leaders, whose members have gone on to become Nobel Prize recipients, UN Goodwill Ambassadors and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.

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