Over 50 Indians, including gymnast Dipa Karmakar, Olympic medalist Sakshi Malik and actress Alia Bhatt, are among Forbes’ list of super achievers from Asia under the age of 30.
In the second Forbes ’30 Under 30′ Asia list 2017 features 300 impressive young entrepreneurs in 10 categories. India has 53 achievers on the list, second only to China which has 76 honorees.
Leading the pack from India are Karmakar who became the first Indian female gymnast to ever compete in the Rio Olympics and the first Indian gymnast to compete in 52 years. Fellow athlete Sakshi Malik, became the first Indian woman to win a medal in Rio in wrestling, where she bagged the bronze.
Forbes noted that Malik, who hails from a small Indian town Rohtak, faced a lot of local opposition to her desire to wrestle when she took up the sport at the age of 12. Srikanth Bolla founder of Bollant Industries has been featured in the manufacturing and energy category.
Bolla was born blind into a family of farmers in rural India and went on to become the first international blind student at MIT, where he studied business management. Post-MIT, Bolla chose to return to India where he set up Bollant Industries in Hyderabad, a company that employs and trains differently-abled individuals to manufacture eco-friendly and compostable packaging.
The list also features Sharath Gayakwad India’s first Paralympic swimmer, coach and Arjuna award winner who has won 96 medals.
