Future Makers

Yvonne Leong, 24

Turning her home beauty regimen into a booming business, Yvonne Leong now has people coming to her salon in Shillong all the way from Guwahati and from across the Northeast for her curd-and-besan and honey-turmeric concoctions. What began in her living room with head massages for friends is now a full-fledged enterprise. She also has a line of products called ‘Miracle’.

Shraddha Sharma, 24

Justin Bieber may be her idol, but this spunky 15-year-old from Dehradun looks poised to do a Bieber of sorts herself. It all began with Shraddha uploading her first song, Main Tenu Samjhawan ki, on YouTube in April this year, which she followed up with a bunch of soulful hits. Today her channel, Shraddharockin, is the highest subscribed channel in India with 26,877 subscribers.

Mathew Jose , 23

Sell waste, buy smiles. This is the mantra driving Paperman.in, which puts money raised from recycling waste paper into educating the girl child. Mathew Jose, 23, a B.Com graduate, who started it in July 2010, has his goal cut out—educating 3,000 children. He’s right on the money: Paperman has reached 61 cities. “I realised the power of recycling after a chat with a raddiwallah,” says Mathew.

Deepak Ravindran, 24

Winner of the MIT TR 35 award, Deepak Ravindran is CEO of Innoz Technologies, Thiruvananthapuram, and co-founder of SMSGyan, a mobile metasearch engine, bridging the gap between the internet and telecom operators. A mobile without an internet connection can SMS it for information on the weather, stock prices, movies etc and get a reply in 500 characters.

Akash Dube, 19

Akash fought off cancer, and he didn’t stop at that. The nineteen-year-old started an annual Terry Fox Run in Chennai, which had its 3rd edition this August, to raise funds for cancer research and to help create awareness. Supporters turned up in thousands. “Today’s research is tomorrow’s cure,” he says wisely. He’s off to college in US this year, fully cured, ready to take another run at life.

Christin George, 24

George, CEO of MindHelix Technosol, Kochi, co-created the Tuk Tuk metre and the Sentinel app. Tuk Tuk is a free rickshaw fare calculator for the mobile, which starts and stops with a button click. Sentinel, a women’s security app, sends location alerts by SMS and e-mail with a click or automatically if the mobile is turned off. MindHelix bagged the mBillionth South Asian Juror’s Distinction award.

Abhay Kumar, 25

The Rs 2,000 budget for his 14-minute film Just That Sort of a Day might have been restrained, but there was no restraint in the acclaim it received. Just... won the best film award at the Busan International Short Film Festival 2011 and the best short film at New York Indian Film Festival 2011. A special jury mention at the Regensburg Short Film Week followed.

R. Jaganathan, 34

When Jaganathan realised that the 220 families in his village in Tamil Nadu spend Rs 1.5 crore a year on fertilisers, medicines and alcohol, he knew things had to change. Leasing six acres near his village, 35 km from Chennai, Jaganathan, who was previously a business development and HR manager, started farming last January and has already notched up a hundred-strong customer base for the greens he harvests.

Vikas Krishnan, 19

Last year, this teenager became the youngest Indian to strike an Asiad gold. Now, he is all set to lord the ring at the London Olympics—a lifelong dream. Vikas, 19, says he looks up to boxing pin-up Vijender Singh, his senior at Bhiwani Boxing Club. His bronze success at the World Boxing Championship in Azerbaijan this month means Vikas is matching step with his idol, punch for punch.

Umang Sabharwal, 19

Inspired by Toronto’s headline-grabbing Slutwalk, Umang got cracking on a Delhi reiteration of the campaign because “the experience of being a woman in this city makes you feel the need to bring a change”. With that, she opened up a heady debate all over the country about sexual violence and the stereotyping of women. ‘Besharmi Morcha’, the Delhi edition, gave women space to stand up for themselves.

Ankur Singla, 27

Just landed an inflated mobile bill the operator refuses to look into? Akosha’s your best bet to a quickfix, a company founded by Ankur Singla, 27, with a simple idea: “To make lives easier for customers and to help brands resolve complaints.” Two years on, Akosha is now a one-stop shop for anyone with a complaint against a firm. They will put your grouse to the top guys, even help you get legal assistance.