Social worker + Activist
Bezwada Wilson experienced firsthand the discrimination faced by certain members of the community where he grew up.
Later on, when he found out the source of this discrimination was manual scavenging, he decided to champion the cause of manual scavengers across India.
He founded the Safai Karamchari Andolan, which seeks to help eradicate manual scavenging and the discrimination faced by those forced to do it.
He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay award for his work.
Sarath Guttikunda
Air Pollution Scientist + Comic Strip Artist
Dr. Sarath Guttikunda has worked with the Indian Metereological Society on prediction models and is one of the few scientists who also feature in comics.
His data models and predictions are used by multiple agencies and his comic strips are fun.
Sumit Dagar
Interface Designer + Innovator
Sumit Dagar is a TED fellow and has won the Rolex Award for Enterprise as well as the NASSCOM Social Innovation Award.
He is the founder and CEO at Kriyate, an organisation that seeks to improve accessibilty for those with disabilities. He is also part of the visiting faculty at Symbiosis Institute of Design and is now working on using technology to impact healthcare.
Doctor + Social Activist
Dr. Sunil Kaul completed his MBBS at Pune University, India. He then served in the Indian Armed Forces where his postings showed him the need for change at the grassroots level.
He then helped set up the ant; the action northeast plan. Among other things, this organisation helps deliver healthcare to those in Northeastern India, where conflict and politics hinders the daily life of villages.
Vaishali Kasture
Managing Director + Marathoner
Vaishali Kasture grew up in Egypt and India. She completed her MBA at Jamnalal Bajaj and began what would be a rapid rise through the corporate sector. After holding prestigious titles at the likes of Deloitte, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, she realised there was a dearth of women at the top. SO she co founded Sonder Connect, a mentorship program aimed at helping women. She is also the founder of India Amateur Runners' Trust, which seeks to help underprivileged runners.
VK Sashindran
Doctor + Medical Researcher
Air Commodore VK Sashindran heads the department of Internal Medicine at AFMC and is an alumnus of the very same college. He specialised in Infectious Diseases and has been working on HIV-AIDS for close to two decades, both in the Indian Armed Forces and with civilians
He is a champion of undergraduate research and started a national Young Researchers' forum more than a decade back.His work in HIV-AIDS and tuberculosis have been published in multiple international journals.