12 Indians among WEF's Young Global Leaders

As many as 12 Indians and 2 Indian Americans have been named as Young Global Leaders (YGLs) for 2011 by the World Economic Forum.

The honour, bestowed each year by WEF, recognises up to 200 outstanding young leaders from around the world for their professional accomplishments, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world.

Drawn from a pool of almost 5,000 candidates, the Young Global Leaders 2011 were chosen by a selection committee chaired by Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan.

They include: Max Levchin, vice president of engineering, Google (from Ukraine); Alexandra Cousteau, founder and president, Blue Legacy International (from France); Funmi Iyanda, blogger, journalist and columnist (from Nigeria); Ricardo Teran, co-founder and managing partner, Agora Partnerships (from Nicaragua); Kala Mulqueeny, senior counsel, Asian Development Bank (from Australia/Philippines); Naoko Yamazaki, astronaut, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (from Japan); Naif Al Mutawa, creator, THE 99 Comics (from Kuwait); Hala Gorani, anchor, CNN International (from the United States); Zhou Xun, actress (from People's Republic of China); Naheed Nenshi, mayor of Calgary (from Canada), among others.

The 2011 honourees will become part of the broader Forum of Young Global Leaders community that currently comprises 668 outstanding individuals.

So . . . 

Anuradha Acharya, CEO, Ocimum Biosolutions

Anuradha Acharya is the founder and CEO of Ocimum Biosolutions, a global genomics outsourcing partner for discovery, development and diagnostics.

The company was founded in the year 2000 and has completed 3 international acquisitions, Gene Logic's Genomics Division from Maryland, USA, in the year 2007, Isogen Life Sciences from The Netherlands in 2006, and the GD business of MWG Biotech of Germany in 2005.

Ocimum today has over 2,000 customers worldwide and operates under the main business units of lab, sample and data management; bioresearch design and execution; data analytics and insights; and integrated solutions.

Anuradha Acharya's experience is backed by education at premier institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur, India and University of Illinois where she has two Post Graduate degrees in Physics and MIS.

. . . 

Sanjay Chandra, MD, Unitech Limited

Sanjay Chandra is managing director of Unitech, one of India's largest real estate companies.

With Unitech since 2001, he has been responsible for the launch of various projects of the company. He is also responsible for diversifying the company into the telecom business and is the chairman of Unitech Wireless, which has its services under the brand of Uninor.

He has a business management degree from Boston University, USA.

. . . 

Sandeep Chatterjee, CTO, Source Trace Systems Inc

Sandeep Chatterjee is in charge of SourceTraces engineering and platform development. A seasoned technology expert and business professional, Chatterjee has over a decade of contributions as a thought leader, technologist, consultant, entrepreneur, and author.

Chatterjee has also consulted with for Fortune-100 companies, such as Hewlett-Packard, as well as major not-for-profit organizations, such as ACCION International.

Chatterjee is co-author of Developing Enterprise Web Services: An Architect's Guide, a book by Prentice Hall, as well as a columnist for mobile and enterprise software systems for a number of leading IT magazines.

earlier, Chatterjee was part of the Expert Group that specified the worldwide standard for mobile Web services.

He also served as the lead and chief architect of Hewlett-Packard's Web Services Mediation Platform. Chatterjee earned a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

. . . 

Gita Gopinath, Professor of Economics, Harvard University

Gita Gopinath is the first Indian woman in to be appointed associate professor at Harvard University's Department of Economics.

Gopinath's position as a tenured full Professor of Economics at Harvard began on July 1, 2010.

A member of the National Bureau of Economic Research, International Growth Center at London School of Economics and Oxford University, she teaches a Ph.D. course on International Finance at Harvard and an undergraduate course in International Macroeconomic Policy.

Before joining Harvard in 2005, she was an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.

Prior to that she completed her Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University. Born in Calcutta, Gopinath has studied at the University of Delhi.

. . . 

Priya Hiranandani-Vandrevala, CEO, Hirco Group

Priya Hiranandani-Vandrevala is the chief executive officer of Hirco, one of India's largest real estate investment companies.

She also serves on various investee company boards and was the 2001 recipient of the Indo-American Society for Young Entrepreneurs award.

She Vandrevala is actively involved with several philanthropic organisations.

. . . 

Manish Khera, CEO, Financial Inclusion Network and Operations Ltd

Manish Khera is the CEO of Financial Inclusion Network & Operations Ltd and is responsible for charting out the company's growth path.

A self-motivated, goal-oriented individual, prior to joining FINO, Khera had 13 years of experience with ICICI Bank.

Khera is an engineer with a Master's degree in Business Administration and MPhil in Environment and Development from Cambridge University, UK, specializing in the field of climate change.

. . . 

Chetan Maini, CTO, Mahindra Reva

Chetan Maini serves as chief of technology & strategy officer and deputy chairman of Mahindra REVA Electric Vehicle Co Ltd. (alternate name is REVA Electric Car Company Private Ltd.), a joint venture between Maini Group of Bangalore and AEV LLC, USA.

Maini has over 14 years of experience with electric vehicles during the course of which he has developed over six electric, solar and hybrid-electric vehicles in India and US.

At Stanford, he served as the project leader for the hybrid electric car project. Earlier at the University of Michigan, he served as the key team leader of the Solar Car team that won the GM Sun Race and stood 3rd in the World Solar Challenges in Australia.

He serves as Director of REVA Electric Car Company Private Ltd.

He has a patent in energy management system for Electric Vehicles and has presented several technical papers on EV's globally.

. . . 

Shaffi Mather, Co-founder, Ambulance Access for All

Shaffi Mather is a lawyer, entrepreneur and a public policy analyst / advisor. He is the vice chairman of MATHER and founder chairman of ZIQITZA.

He practices law focusing on litigation in public interest matters, especially battling for transparency in governance and use of public funds, human rights, civil rights and primacy of constitution.

He is the founder of Ambulance Access for All (Dial 1298 for Ambulance -- an Emergency Response Ambulance Service), Education Access for All (Newton Schools in Small Town India and E-tutor Digital Teaching / Learning Support) and www.bribebusters.com (an organisation battling individual instances of demands for bribes).

Shaffi is also an active member of the Indian National Congress party.

. . . 

Meenakshi Natarajan, Member of Parliament

Meenakshi Natarajan is an Member of Parliament from Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh.

She is also AICC secretary and is in the core team of Rahul Gandhi for building the party.

She is a post graduate in Biochemistry and did her Bachelor's degree in Law.

She was the NSUI president from 1999 2002 and was selected by Rahul Gandhi as AICC secretary in 2008.

She worked with Baba Amte, one of her icons apart from Anna Hazare and Sunderlal Bahuguna.

. . . 

Deepender Singh Hooda, Member of Parliament

Deepender Singh Hooda is a member of the 15th Lok Sabha of India.

He represents the Rohtak constituency of Haryana and is a member of the Indian National Congress (INC) political party.

He is son of Haryana chief minister Chaudhary Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

. . . 

Ramakarthikeyan Srikrishna, founding partner, HCL Technologies

Srikrishna Ramakarthikeyan is founding partner, and head of global strategy and sales, HCL Technologies.

He is graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and also has a degree in management from the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta.

. . . 

Bhavin Turakhia, CEO, Directi

Bhavin, Directi's founding CEO, is responsible for the growth of Directi from a start-up in 1998 to a global web products company with over 6 businesses, 20+ products, 500+ employees and millions of global customers.

Under his leadership, ResellerClub and LogicBoxes have become industry leaders in their respective verticals, and Directi has consistently featured amongst the fastest growing tech companies in Asia by Deloitte and Touche.

In 1998, at the age of 18, while in college, he founded Directi, with a focus to develop volume based Web Products and Services for a global audience.

. . . 

Nikki R. Haley, Governor of South Carolina

Nimrata Nikki Randhawa Haley is the Governor of South Carolina. She is a member of the Republican Party.

She is one of the two Indian Americans to be included in the Young Global Leaders' list by the WEF.

Haley is the first Indian and the first woman to serve as Governor of South Carolina, and the second Indian-American governor in the country, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. At the age of 39, she also displaced Jindal as the youngest current governor in the United States.

. . . 

Vivek Kundra, CIO, USA

Vivek Kundra is the first Chief Information Officer of the United States of America, appointed by President Obama on March 5, 2009.

Vivek Kundra was born in New Delhi in 1975, migrated with his parents to Tanzania where he lived till he was 11 and then moved to the US.