Over 50 Indians, including gymnast Dipa Karmakar, Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik, are among Forbes’ list of super achievers from Asia under the age of 30 who are “pushing boundaries of innovation”, PTI reported.
India has 53 achievers on the list, second only to China which has 76 honorees. Leading the pack from India are Karmakar, 23, who became the first Indian female gymnast to ever compete in the Olympics during the last games held in Rio de Janeiro - and the first Indian gymnast to compete in 52 years.
“While she didn’t win a medal, she ranked an impressive fourth on her first-ever Olympic outing, missing the bronze by a hair’s breadth - 0.15 points,” Forbes said adding that she performed the Produnova vault in the finals - making her one of only five gymnasts to ever successfully do so.
Fellow athlete Malik, 24, 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 age 12.
The list also features Sharath Gayakwad, 25, India’s first Paralympic swimmer, coach and Arjuna award winner who has won 96 medals.
“Swimming wasn’t enough - he realised that the struggle to find swim apparel was still difficult in India - so he formed Gamatics, an aggregator between international brands and domestic retailers, for anyone to find swimwear in India,” Forbes said.
The second Forbes ‘30 Under 30’ Asia list 2017 features 300 impressive young entrepreneurs — 30 in 10 categories, including entertainment, finance and venture capital, retail, social entrepreneurs and enterprise technology, under the age of 30 years who are pushing the boundaries of innovation.