Meet the cool kids who made it to Forbes India’s 30 under 30 list

Following the Forbes list of 30 under 30 list of young achievers that was announced last month where 45 Indians found a mention, Forbes India revealed its own 30 under 30 list today, featuring who they described as the cool kids.

The list is a mixture of expected faces and a few new ones. It’s certainly not as exhaustive as the original list, but the list, in its third year now doesn’t fail to pack a punch.

Explaining their choices, Forbes put out an article, saying “These young men and women not only fill us with admiration but also, to borrow an acronym from their generation, major FOMO (fear of missing out—yes, that’s a thing).

To compound this angst, let’s remember this list is not exhaustive. It is impossible to cover the geographical expanse of this country and reach every potential candidate. But, as always, our aim is to find the best possible names that meet our three criteria: The extent of the impact of an achievement in a short span of time and its ability to disrupt the status quo; scalability of the business or line of work; and enough indication of being a long-term player. And, as with previous lists, well-established names as well as those who have access to an influential lineage are not considered.”

To make it even simpler for readers, we decided to introduce you to the 30 change makers mentioned in the list, across the 13 categories.



Ritesh Agarwal (22) the founder of OYO found a mention under Ecommerce in this list and is the only one to be featured in the earlier list by Forbes as well. The other contenders in this section was Arpit Dave (23) and Mohit Kumar (27), founders of RoadRunnr and innovator Anirudh Sharma (26) were the other contenders in this category.

Actress Richa Chadha (28), film-maker Raam Reddy (26) and stand-up comedian Abish Mathew (28) represented the Entertainment category.
Inshorts which has completely revolutionized the way news is consumed at the present found a mention in the Social Media, Mobile Tech and Communication category.

Harsh Songra, the founder of My Child App, and whom Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg dedicated a post to is the youngest person to be on the list at 19.

Equally lauded were Arunima Sinha (28) who took up mountaineering as an amputee after losing her legs in an accident in 2011 when thieves threw her out a moving train and Shreya Singhal (24), a vocal advocate for the speech of freedom and expression, especially on the internet. Singhal is a law student at Delhi University.

Yash Bhanage (29), Founder and COO, Bombay Canteen dominated the food and hospitality category with his already popular Mumbai restaurant.

According to Forbes, the research process was three fold- First, the staff of Forbes India conducted interviews with sources across relevant categories and analyzed media coverage at the same time. Second, applications were invited from entrepreneurs and professionals on forbesindia.com and third, word was spread on social media.

This helped the team arrive on a longlist of 300 across 13 categories, which was then cut down to 100 after weighing in views of experts and from there the Forbes Team took over to make the final selection!

Image credit: Forbes India