YourStory is proud to announce the launch of its annual 100 Emerging Voices of 2019, powered by Amazon Web Services. It is our compilation of emerging thought leaders, whose thoughts and opinions mattered to our readers in 2019, and whose voices, we believe, will gain prominence in 2020 and beyond. 

Every year, YourStory, India’s most credible media company for Indian entrepreneurs and changemakers, brings its readers thousands of inspirational, insightful, and impactful stories of entrepreneurs who have defined and continue to shape the narrative of the Indian startup ecosystem. Along with these stories, we also bring you the insights and opinions of expert voices from various fields, whose writings go beyond the world of startups and businesses and delve into pertinent political, social, gender, and environmental issues. 

We’ve published in-depth articles and opinions by experts and influencers on YourStory, as well as on our different properties, including HerStory, SocialStory, and SMBStory. 

To compile the list of YourStory’s 100 Emerging Voices of 2018, we scoured through thousands of articles contributed by specialists in various fields, carefully selecting those that garnered the highest engagement from our readers, using measures such as the number of page views, time spent per user, likes, comments, and shares. 

The top 100 Emerging Voices of 2019 includes entrepreneurs, investors, business leaders, activists, healthcare workers, journalists, authors, and bloggers from across India and the world, who have contributed high-quality, insightful and engaging content for our readers. But among these experts, we have found that every year, there is always a crop of emerging thought leaders whose thoughts and opinions resonated with our readers and are worth watching out for.

Apurva Purohit, President, Jagran Prakashan, tops this list, followed by Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder & CEO, Hike; Nisha Holla, Technology Fellow, C-CAMP, and; Mihir Dalal, author of the Big Billion Startup, among others.

We’re proud to present YourStory’s 100 Emerging Voices of 2019, our recommendation of experts whose voices will matter in the year 2020 and whose writings, we believe, you should watch out for to stay informed and inspired in the year ahead.

APURVA PUROHIT

Lady, You're the Boss

About the author

Apurva Purohit is one of India’s most powerful women in media and business. She is the President of Jagran Prakashan, one of India’s largest media houses that has a presence across print, radio, digital, and outdoor. A staunch supporter of gender diversity in the workplace, she has authored books on the subject.

An IIM-B alumnus and media industry veteran for over three decades, Apurva manages a $800 million multimedia conglomerate. She is also credited for the successful IPO of Radio City FM in 2017. This year, it was recognised as one of the Best Places to Work for Women.

Prior to Jagran, she set up Lodestar, one of India’s most prominent media buying agencies, and also had stints at Times Network and ZEE Entertainment Enterprises. Apurva has also been listed among India’s most powerful women in business by Fortune magazine.

What she writes about

Apruva is a leading advocate of gender diversity in corporate India, and has authored national bestsellers, including 'Lady You’re Not a Man!' and 'Lady, You’re the Boss!'

She’s stressed upon the need for men to become allies in the fight for gender equality, and also highlighted the need for organisations to have more women in the boardroom.

She’s even cited research to establish that if women work at their full potential, it could add up to $28 trillion to the global GDP by 2025. Yet, women don’t constitute even half of the global workforce. The situation is bleaker in India.

Apurva has also outlined steps to tackle invisible gender bias in the workplace, and called for women to be more assertive about their professional achievements.

Another area of her writings focuses on “mindfulness” and the need to occasionally disconnect from a tech-obsessed world. She urges us to find beauty in the simple and mundane things of life.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/apurva-purohit

KAVIN BHARTI MITTAL

Building a New Social Future

About the author

Kavin Bharti Mittal is one of India’s youngest billionaire entrepreneurs. The Founder and CEO of Hike, a cross-platform instant messaging platform, has built his startup into a $1.4 billion corporation.

The Delhi-based startup was launched in 2012, and reached unicorn status in just four years. In 2016, Hike became the 10th Indian startup to cross $1 billion in valuation. It is backed by some of the most prominent global investors, including Tencent, Foxconn, Tiger Global, SoftBank, Bharti Enterprises (the promoter of telecom major Bharti Airtel), and other angels. Hike has raised more than $260 million in funding so far.

Kavin, who’s had prior stints at Google and Goldman Sachs, believes that he’s building a “new social future” for Indian millennials who are obsessed with communication.

What he writes about

Kavin is a prominent voice in the world of Indian social tech, and has consistently shared deep, meaningful insights on behavioural patterns of online consumers.

He has written on myriad subjects, including the meteoric rise of instant messengers in India, the millennial obsession with emojis (which prompted Hike to launch HikeMoji in November), the rising need for language integration, the emergence of newer revenue models, and the advancements in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more.

Kavin believes that changing social behaviour will dictate business models for consumer tech startups in the future. He’s particularly pleased with Hike’s “wise decision” of pulling the plug on payments this year. It had rolled out peer-to-peer payments on the Hike app in mid-2017.

Even though payments scaled fast in terms of users, growth had to be driven with incentives like cashbacks. “And this was going to be a big capital sink,” Kavin says.

Hike could, in fact, set a precedent for several homegrown startups chasing ‘superapp’ dreams without figuring out a business model to support such ambitions.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/kavin-bharti

NISHA HOLLA

Deep Science for Social Impact

About the author

Nisha Holla is a computational physicist and researcher. She graduated from Pennsylvania’s Carnegie Mellon University in 2013.

She served as a product development engineer at Bay Area-based Applied Materials, the world’s leading semiconductor equipment manufacturer. As part of a specialised team, she offered guidance on hardware design and process improvements.

In 2017, Nisha moved back to India and joined Biomoneta Research as Engineering Co-Founder. At Biomoneta, the team works towards changing the paradigm of global infection control by implementing decontamination solutions.

Since 2018, she has also been a Consulting Editor with YourStory Media, and has authored pieces on the Indian economy and technology. She led the development of an exhaustive report on India’s deep science ecosystem, covering the most innovative startups in the sector.

In 2019, Nisha joined Bengaluru’s Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms as a Technology Fellow.

What she writes about

Nisha has written about how startups can rewrite India’s economic roadmap and lead the country’s march towards $5 trillion GDP. She notes that startups have already re-engineered how Indians earn, save, spend, and transact online.

She has also pushed for stronger policy decisions by the government to maintain a high growth rate for the next five years. She is of the opinion that knowledge-driven fields can accelerate value addition and drive GDP growth.

She has dwelled on India’s current job crisis, and highlighted that not enough high-paying jobs are being created for graduates. Most jobs recorded in the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) are low paying ones in the Rs 25,000-30,000 bracket.

She’s also explained that several states in India have a significant number of graduates, but not enough job opportunities, which is leading to higher migration towards other cities such as Bengaluru, Mumbai, etc

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/nisha-holla

MIHIR DALAL

Chronicling the big billion startup stories

About the author

Mihir Dalal has spent over a decade in business journalism, first as an assistant producer at CNBC TV18, India’s largest business television network. He later went on to cover equities and consumer retail at Reuters before joining Mint, one of India’s leading financial dailies, as a staff writer in 2012.

It was at Mint that Mihir rose through the ranks, became widely read and emerged as a critical commentator on India’s rapidly evolving startup ecosystem. Today, he leads startup coverage for the newspaper.

His first book, 'Big Billion Startup - The Untold Flipkart Story', chronicles the journey of India's online retailer Flipkart.

What he writes about

Mihir is well-known for his coverage of the Indian startup ecosystem and has produced several analytical pieces on the state of Indian entrepreneurs and emerging businesses. He has also broken stories on some of India’s leading startups including Flipkart, Ola, Paytm, InMobi, Snapdeal, and more.

Additionally, Mihir has covered large developments across global consumer tech giants such as Amazon, Alibaba, and Uber, and traced their fascinating journeys in India. Some of his notable coverage include Amazon’s tax troubles and controversial joint ventures, Flipkart’s momentous $16 billion sale to Walmart, challenges and downsizing of Snapdeal, funding slowdown across the startup ecosystem, Redbus’s sale to Naspers, illegal deep discounting done by top online retailers, and more.

In 2019, Mihir published his first book, 'Big Billion Startup - The Untold Flipkart Story', which garnered significant praise for its definitive account of Flipkart, a company that not only rose from a modest two-BHK flat in Bengaluru to become a giant, multibillion-dollar corporation, but also transformed the way Indians shop online, thereby paving the path for a startup revolution in the country.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/mihir-dalal

SIDU PONNAPPA

The man behind Gojek’s phenomenal growth

About the author

Sidu Ponappa has worked in the Indian IT industry, both services and products, for about 12 years. During this period, he held two jobs and co-founded four startups. Sidu has worked as an engineer, product manager, salesperson, recruiter, marketer, CTO, and CEO. He has failed more times than he can count. His most recent startup was acquired by Gojek, an Indonesian unicorn in 2015. He serves as the India Head for the company.

What he write about

Sidu mostly Writes about technology. But is also often found penning his thoughts about leadership, growth, life lessons, and motorcycles.

One of his interesting observations revolves around how a Super App, which fits in many apps within an umbrella app, can make it easier for the next billion users to adapt to mobile phone usage. Sidu’s bet is based on the fact that a Super App is an operating system that reduces clutter, increases productivity, and adds user experience (UX) elements.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/sidu-ponnappa

ANAND ANANDKUMAR

A man of science; a humanitarian at heart

About the author

Anand Anandkumar is the CEO and Managing Director of Bugworks Research, a startup that aims to discover novel treatment options for resistant bacterial infections. Anand was previously the Chairman and Managing Director of Cellworks Research India Pvt. Ltd, a company that pioneered the use of systems biology and semiconductor technologies in creating directed therapies in cancer care. He is a member of Eta-Kappa-Nu and Tau-Beta-Pi international engineering honours societies and is the co-inventor on patents ranging from satellite communication, pharmaceuticals to clean energy.

What he write about

Anand has written about how the unregulated use of antibiotics has given rise to superbugs – a bacteria that can resist antibiotics. He has detailed how as a community, India has abused antibiotics by overusing them without prescriptions, filling its protein food chain with them, and then dumping pharmaceutical waste from antibiotic plants into the country’s water streams.

He is a passionate scientist and a humanitarian at heart. Anand believes that for science and scientific innovation to be at its best, it must be driven by the values of compassion and humanity.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/anand-anandkumar

GEETA GOEL

Amplifying the impact of impact investing in India

About the author

Geeta Goel manages the strategy and implementation of the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation’s work in India in two key areas – education and family economic stability. Leveraging a suite of funding tools – grants, contracts, and programme-related investments – the foundation has committed over $150 million in India and has over 50 active projects in the country.

Geeta has represented the foundation on several boards of its investee companies, including Ujjivan, Janalakshmi, Swadhaar, Arohan, and Micro Housing Finance Corporation. She is also on the investment committee of India Educational Investment Fund and Education Catalyst Fund.

What she write about

Geeta writes extensively on impact investing in India. As an insider to the country’s impact investing scenario for more than a decade now, she has an in-depth understanding of the subject.

According to Geeta, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation is always looking for “white spaces” or areas with high impact potential where the market doesn’t appear to be addressing the needs of the people. In such areas, their experience in working closely with the grantees/investees, paired with their sectoral research and diagnostic studies, helps in identifying the roots of a problem – and the likely disruptions that will catalyse a market-based model.

The foundation is inching close to the $100 million mark in impact investments and has impacted the lives of over 12 million families living in poverty in urban India.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/geeta-goel

SHRIPATI ACHARYA

Decoding entrepreneurship and investor mentality

About the author

Shripati Acharya is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Priven Advisors, advisory to Prime Venture Partners. Prime is one of India's premier early-stage funds focussed on creating disruptive, category-creating technology companies out of India, for local and global markets.

He was the Co-founder of Ezetap – a leader in mobile PoS, that helped in changing the payment landscape in India and beyond. He also worked with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UID) to create and execute a framework for authentication and application development. He is an IIT engineer, a Stanford post-grad, and a Harvard MBA degree holder.

What he writes about

Shripati writes on investment, entrepreneurship, and technology. According to him, sometimes, shutting down a startup when things are not working out, can turn out to be one of the best decisions an entrepreneur could take. The biggest benefit is that the founders get to make a fresh start and try their hand at another roll of the dice on the startup table, believes Shripati.

He also addresses common dilemmas faced by young people on whether to stick to their jobs or start-up, through his writing. Shripati believes that doing a startup early in the career makes the decision more reversible. If you haven’t taken a lot of personal financial risk in the first one, you can start another company down the road, the investor elaborates.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/shripati-acharya

SAMEER DHANRAJANI

Simplifying the world of AI and data analytics

About the author

Sameer Dhanrajani is a well-recognised analytics and data sciences leader who has come to be known for his deep knowledge and topical understanding across all genres of analytics and data sciences. His penchant for global analytics trends is apparent in the various thought pieces and the best-selling book he authored, titled AI and Analytics: Accelerating Business Decisions.

When not penning down his thoughts, Sameer spends time consulting with Fortune 500 enterprises, Indian corporations, GCCs, and startups, helping them drive AI-led strategic transformation strategies. His TEDx talks are an absolute treat for those who are passionate about tech and everything futuristic.

What he writes about

More often than not, topics such as artificial intelligence, algorithms, and data and analytics are regarded as complex, not-for-the-masses subjects. But with his simple, lucid, and relatable style of writing, Sameer Dhanrajani has managed to break it all down, even complex jargon, for the reader’s pleasure.

From tracing the top AI trends to analysing the power that this re-emerging tech has on traditional market segments such as banking and retail, the archive of Sameer’s thought pieces are extensive and elaborate. In fact, in one of his recent pieces – titled How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing the Face Of Banking in India – Sameer makes a bold comparison between traditional banks and upstart fintech firms leveraging advanced technologies.

In what he calls the “second machine age”, Sameer even goes on to make a suggestion on how banking corporations need to embrace AI as part of their business strategy to maintain their competitive edge.

Besides this, the renowned AI advisor has also detailed his thoughts on the transformation of the retail industry and the impact of AI on engineering and construction industry.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/sameer-dhanrajani

SUMIT LAKHANI

Decoding the millennial mind

About the author

A vocal advocate of the coworking juggernaut, Sumit Lakhani is the Chief Marketing Officer at Awfis Space Solutions. He takes an active interest in decoding, what he calls, the millennial mind.

Sumit came onboard Awfis, the Mumbai-based coworking space operator, right around the time of its inception. Today, he is a part of the core management team, serving as the Chief Marketing Officer and overseeing the demand and supply side function at Awfis. His key responsibilities include sales, marketing, real estate acquisition, fund raising, and strategy.

Asides from his deep knowledge of the changing office space segment in India and the rise of the coworking culture, Sumit has also garnered an intriguing understanding of the new-age workforce, ranging from millennials to Gen Z. With over 10 years of prior work experience in investment banking, private equity, and IT services, he contributes towards the changing narrative around the ecosystem of workspaces in the current scenario.

What he writes about

At the start of this decade, if there’s one trend that took hold of businesses across the world, it was the wave of collaborative workspaces. These coworking spaces not only disrupted the office space segment, but also introduced easier, flexible, collaborative, and cost-effective processes into the workforce. A trend that was widely reported and voiced by Sumit Lakhani, the man at the helm of many marketing initiatives at Awfis.

Being at the centre of all the action at Awfis, Sumit was able to foresee the key coworking trends, while predicting the nature of competition and demand around this space. Some of his top findings include the foray of coworking into coliving, the impact of deeper technology integration, the rise of work-near-home programmes, adoption of flexible and mobile solutions, holistic enterprise solutions, and more.

However, of all these interesting trends and prediction, one thing that stands out in particular is Sumit’s view of the position of the office worker at the heart of all office space solutions in the future. After all, the way technology and work culture has shaped the coworking scenario, ‘the office worker’ theory indeed seems to be a reality of the hour.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/sumit-lakhani

ROOPA KUDVA

Empowering the next half billion

About the author

Roopa Kudva, in her career spanning over nearly three decades, has held many a key roles, including those entailing leadership functions. She was the CEO & MD of Crisil, India’s leading analytical and research company, for close to seven years. She led Crisil’s evolution from a leading Indian rating agency to a diversified global analytical company, with clients ranging from the largest investment banks of the world to tens of thousands of small businesses spread across India.

While the time at Crisil provided Roopa with rich exposure to a wide range of industries, she wanted to be able to bring about a larger societal impact. At the age of 50, Roopa Kudva made her move to Omidyar Network, a US-based investment firm.

As the Partner and Managing Director of Omidyar Network, she is responsible for the firm’s overall investment strategy, operations and portfolio development. This is in addition to her role as member of various boards in corporates like Infosys, Nestle, and Tata AIA Life Insurance Co.

What she writes about

With a background in operations, portfolio management, and business and strategies, and a vast experience as a member of several policy-level committees relating to the Indian financial system, Roopa Kudva has an expert’s view of the Indian financial services sector.

In her insightful opinion pieces, the Managing Director of Omidyar Network has spotlighted many an issue plaguing the financial lives of Indians, especially the ones comprising the “next half billion”.

From accessing the multitude of factors limiting MSMEs potential as a powerful growth engine for the Indian economy to providing an insight into the usage of formal financial services, her writings have covered the length and breadth of the sector.

An outspoken champion of women entrepreneurship, Roopa has spoken boldly on the various challenges blocking the rise of women in leadership roles. In her opinion, women still hesitate to ask for a seat at the table. She believes, if women can deal with self-belief (or its lack) in doing the top jobs, there’s nothing stopping them from climbing the ladder of success.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/roopa-kudva

ANUJ KAPUR

Highlighting the need for cybersecurity

About the author

A management graduate from the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi, Anuj Kapur counts more than two decades of experience in sales, distribution, marketing, B2B business development, and country management. This is including nine years of IT background and over 20 years of telecom experience, working with the likes of HCL, PCL, Fujitsu ICIM, Motorola, Samsung, Alcatel Lucent, and Ericsson.

But this was before Anuj had dabbled in the domain of cybersecurity. In 2017, he came on board Lucideus, which is a pure play cyber security platforms company incubated out of IIT Bombay and backed by former Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers.

In his present role, Anuj’s extensive experience, leading businesses for large organisations in India and growing them significantly, helps him enable multifold growth for a startup.

What he writes about

That a cybersecurity-oriented approach is the cornerstone of an organisation’s reputation, and more importantly, that of its business’ success, cannot be emphasised enough. Especially in the current scenario, where cyberattacks are imposing a significant threat due to their frequency, magnitude, and impact.

But as is the case more often than not, startups, in the race to clock big revenue and achieve prestigious milestones and the ticket to the unicorn club, tend to overlook the need for cybersecurity. Anuj Kapur, in his in-depth pieces on startups and cybersecurity, spotlights this very issue, highlighting the urgency as to why organisations should start treating data breaches and other threats with utmost seriousness.

As someone with the technical know-how, Anuj illustrates his concerns with relevant examples – the account on how tech giant Yahoo lost $350 million in valuation due to a data breach – and intriguing stats that not only draw attention to the need of cybersecurity but also forge much-needed conversations around it.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/anuj-kapur

KABIR JEET SINGH

Bringing out the flavour of the food industry

About the author

Kabir Jeet Singh is the CEO and Co-founder of Burger Singh. He has to his credit a master’s degree in financial strategy from University of Oxford and an MBA from University of Birmingham.

He enjoys experimenting with burger flavours, and what started off as a pastime became an entrepreneurial venture. Kabir has expertise in identifying locations, and launching and managing operations and supply chains to the last mile.

After opening 28 outlets and notching up Rs 26 crore in turnover, he remains hungry for more.

What he writes about

Kabir’s fervour for the food industry is visible in his writing. He writes about trends that are picking up pace in the industry and predicts the scope of Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs).

His article gave people insight into how food deliveries will find their next target market in Tier II and III cities. Apart from sharing his insights on the growth of the food industry, Kabir familiarises his readers with commonly used terms in the field (QSR, hyperlocal marketing, and ghost restaurants).

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/kabir-jeet

DR RAMESH BYRAPANENI

Innovation in healthcare is this expert’s forte

About the author

Dr Ramesh Byrapaneni is the Managing Director of Endiya Partners. A cardiologist-turned-venture capitalist, he invests mainly in digital health and medical devices. Entrepreneurship and innovation always spurred Ramesh, leading him to be the President of TiE Hyderabad.

He is also the Founding Director of Hyderabad Angels. With his rich experience of 23 years as a cardiologist, he endeavours to be a part of the healthcare innovation story.

What he writes about

Ramesh likes to write well-informed and detailed pieces on innovative health technologies.

With his extensive analysis of electronic health records, he yearns to mitigate ignorance around digitising healthcare and to spread awareness about the same.

He strongly believes that data collection in the health industry is insufficient if it cannot be shared or put to use by health professionals. He has also shed light on the National Health Stack (NHS) through his pieces.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/dr.-ramesh

SIDDHARTHA GUPTA

Pro at people skills and community building

About the author

Siddhartha Gupta is the CEO of Mercer | Mettl. He has a proven track record of successfully growing IT behemoths like HP and SAP in India.

A strong team player with a collaborative leadership style, he has led many teams from scratch to scale. He focusses on using acquisition and development to help companies build winning teams.

What he writes about

Siddhartha uses his understanding of employees to write on how to enhance the skillset of the team. He shares tips to curate and administer assessments to measure knowledge, skills, behaviour, and personality regularly.

His target audience is HR Managers, and his writing is aimed at using workforce analytics efficiently. He believes that there’s a need to optimise employee experience to boost company productivity and profitability.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/siddhartha-gupta

ASHISH FAFADIA

From CA to mastering finance in startups

About the author

Ashish Fafadia is the Chief Financial Officer at Blume Ventures. His career has taken many turns - from being a chartered accountant at SBI to heading managerial positions at Times Group and becoming Partner and later CFO of Blume Ventures. During his initial days at Blume, he was instrumental in executing a platform-driven approach. Now, he manages growth and portfolio companies.

What he writes about

A trained finance professional, Ashish writes about the basics of starting up and seed funding. His articles drive home the point that investor support should be at par with the startup’s capital. His interesting take on the benefits of the 2019 Union Budget for the startup economy prove his passion for extending help to founders. Through his writings, he emphasises that not planning for success is like planning for failure.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/ashish-fafadia

HARSHA KUMAR

Consumer, Fintech and SME has a new champion in Harsha Kumar who has been a part of Lightspeed for three years. She is a board observer at Udaan and several other companies. She loves building teams, products and companies and she has been fortunate to be a part of some of the most interesting organisations like Ola. She is also excited by scale and forever chasing growth

About the author

She created and led the product organisation, a team of 40, at Ola cabs. She remained part of the core team at Olacabs and scaled the organisation from 3,000 rides a day to a million rides a day. She has designed, launched and scaled multiple products at Ola - consumer app, driver app, internal rides management and accounting platforms, Ola Money wallet, Ola's B2B solution (Ola Corporate), Ola Auto, Ola rental/outstation and Ola's Support Platform.

She also launched Ola's worked at Zynga and turned her expertise towards gaming where she drove quarterly revenue, managed daily active users and retention programmes for two flagship games. She formulated the go to market strategy for Dell’s cloud offerings in the APAC region. She setup the game development lab at Persistent Systems and planned the investment budget and formulated the growth strategy.

What she writes about

She loves writing about SMEs and startups. Her favourite topics are always about strategy and growth. The Instead alumnus writes on medium.com among others. From how entrepreneurs make good leaders to or demystifying employee stock options, her body of work has insights on strategy, product innovation and investment.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/harsha-kumar

GAUTAM RAJ ANAND

An entrepreneur with a connect with GenZ India, his startup monitors all kinds of rollouts and sprints. The podcast king turns his expertise on how content can pave the way for growth stories, from scratch

About the author

At a very young age, Gautam found his own personal and professional salvation in audio content. He practices what he preaches, and consumes audio content for more than 14 hours a day.

While eating, driving or during daily chores, his pillowcase always has a set of speakers. The ease and simplicity of audio content consumption incrementally led to the creation of India’s largest podcasting and audio on-demand company for Gautam.

The Mumbai-born lad who grew up in New Delhi, graduated from Shri Ram School after which he went on to pursue an Economics Honours at Delhi University. Barclays Bank PLC came next where he was a senior risk analyst. This cemented his decision to start Hubhopper as a platform that works towards making the consumption of online audio content as easy as possible.

He has been recognised as a member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 in Asia for media and technology (batch of 2018) and has been nominated on the Economic Times 40 Under 40 list. Under Gautam’s leadership, Hubhopper has grown massively and has been widely recognised for innovative leaps resolving the diverse problems pervading the online content creation and distribution industry.

He was also awarded Entrepreneur of the Year for 2018 by Entrepreneur Magazine. Three years into the creation of Hubhopper, it now stands as India’s largest platform of its kind with over a million hours of audio content spread across 15 vernacular languages and 8 consumer and creator centric products and services.

What he writes about

He writes about how podcasts are redefining Indian culture. His twitter ID emphasises on how content is never easy, and his youtube videos highlight how podcasts can create stack.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/gautam-raj

ANNA CHANDY

Driving disruption in mental health innovation

About the author

Anna Chandy is a columnist, author, counsellor, speaker, mentor, and coach to senior leaders, executives and individuals. She has been deeply involved in the mental health domain in India for more than 25 years.

She is the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of The Live Love Laugh Foundation (TLLLF), a charitable trust founded in 2015 by actor Deepika Padukone, to give hope to every individual experiencing stress, anxiety, and depression. Previously, she has worked with survivors of the Gujarat earthquake and the victims of the tsunami in Sri Lanka and India in psycho-socio rehabilitation work.

What she writes about

Anna's body of work encompasses counselling individuals from various walks of life, including social influencers, entrepreneurs, and business families; training and mentoring counsellors; and leading important strategic interventions aimed at driving systemic change in the country’s mental health ecosystem.

She has pioneered changes in the counselling profession in India, advocating international standards of practice and an ethical and relational approach to counselling.

As a philanthropist and a widely acknowledged thought leader in the mental health sector, she now partners with social influencers to create a community support model that addresses the mental health needs of a societal ecosystem.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/anna-chandy

ISHITA JAIN

An innovator who propagates the use of design as a tool for social impact

About the author

Ishita Jain has a master's in design, with skills in ethnographic research, facilitation, UX, mapping complex systems, data visualisation, social entrepreneurship, and leadership. She works at Autodesk Foundation, where she uses her skills to support entrepreneurs and innovators creating innovative design solutions to the

world's most pressing social and environmental challenges.

What she writes about

Ishita wants designers to find their sweet spot in execution. But the question is how do designers find these opportunities? Not enough design schools and institutes are urging students to think about the potential impact they can have in the world through their work. Also, most people, designers included, think that solving social problems is for governments, non-profits, and CSR institutions, and often don’t think about this as a career opportunity. Ishita wants to make an impact and help designers change and structure their approach.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/ishita-jain

ABHISHEK TIWARI

Serial entrepreneur and investment professional Abhishek Tiwari is betting on micro-mobility becoming the next wave of urban transport in India

About the author

Abhishek Tiwari is a serial entrepreneur who has founded companies in the education, fashion, and hospitality sector. He founded apparel brand Salsa Tees and network group Indian Student Identity Solutions, and helped create and launch India Hostels, one of the country’s first branded hostel chains.

He has also worked as an investment professional at Kalaari Capital, venture partner at Astarc Ventures, and advisor at education startup Edugild. Abhishek takes pride in being an active catalyst in the Indian startup ecosystem, engaging with early-stage companies and helping them build products and teams to gain early traction.

What he writes about

Abhishek is excited about new ideas and solutions that can impact millions, and has written about micro-mobility (bicycles, skateboards, skates, mini-scooters, e-bikes, small electric vehicles) becoming the next wave of transportation in India. He believes micro-mobility is much more than just a short-term concept. His writing explains why the cost-effective mode of transportation could be one answer to the urban transportation crisis.

Abhishek uses examples of Ofo, launched in partnership with Paytm, Yulu Bikes, Zoomcar’s Pedl, Vogo, Bounce, and other players in the space to build his case. He maintains that large pools of capital will be poured in to drive demand and invest in supply and product, and solve India-specific problems. He writes that global behemoths such as Ant Financial/Alibaba, Uber, and Didi, who have been active investors in global scooter companies, are still on the sidelines, waiting to find the right partner and time to get a piece of this pie.

Read more at: https://yourstory.com/people/abhishek-tiwari

KUMAR VEMBU

Retail software expert Kumar Vembu redefines transformation and how retailers can ride the wave and capture increasing market opportunities

About the author

Kumar Vembu, CEO and founder of leading ERP software company GoFrugal, is a retail domain expert who initially started as a project associate at IIT-Madras. He then worked as a software engineer for HCL and Qualcomm. He started software product firm Vembu Systems in 1995, and was also President and COO at AdventNet (now ZOHO Corporation).

He started GoFrugal in 2014 in an attempt to address the organised and unorganised retail market with premium quality, affordable solutions. He is also a coach, angel investor, motivational speaker, and fitness enthusiast.

What he writes about

Kumar has written about customers and competition driving transformation in retail. In this context, he questions how the word “transformation” is used by companies that speak of riding a tran