Oye’s Ritish Agarwal among 45 Indian-origin persons on Forbes list

Twenty-two-year-old Ritesh Agarwal, founder and chief executive officer of Oyo Rooms, is among the 45 Indians or Indian-origin people who have made it to Forbes ' annual list of achievers under the age of 30.

The Forbes fifth annual '30 Under 30' list features 600 women and men who are America's ''most important young entrepreneurs, creative leaders and brightest stars" and are "changing the world" across 20 varied sectors such as consumer technology, social entrepreneurship and industry.

"In the past, youth was a handicap to professional success. Getting older meant more resources, more knowledge, more money. No more,'' Forbes said. ''Those who grew up in the tech age have way bigger ambitions - perfectly suited to the dynamic, entrepreneurial and impatient digital world they grew up in. If you want to change the world, being under 30 is now an advantage," Forbes said.

Ritesh Agarwal of Oyo Rooms featured in the consumer tech segment. "In a country that lacks a steady supply of budget hotel chains, Oyo has developed a network of 2,200 small hotels in 100 cities across India," Forbes said.

Others on the list are 28-year old Gagan Biyani and Neeraj Berry who co-founded Sprig, a mobile app that lets one find and order healthy meals and have them delivered quickly, and 25-year-old Karishma Shah, the youngest hire at Alphabet's Google X so-called moonshot factory, where the search giant places "smart people to come up with far-out technologies that can be applied to world's big problems".

In the Hollywood and entertainment field is 27-year-old Canadian writer-comedian Lily Singh. From the world of finance, the Forbes list features Nila Das, 27, vice-president at Citigroup.

The others making a mark in finance are 29-year-old Divya Nettimi, an investment analyst at Viking Global Investors, who co-managed Harvard Business School's Alpha Fund while getting her MBA; 29-year-old Vikas Patel, a senior analyst at hedge fund Millennium Management and 29-year-old Neel Rai, an investment analyst at Caxton Associates where he is part of a three-person team managing $600 million portfolio.

In the venture capital segment, the Forbes list featured 26-year-old Vishal Lugani, a senior associate at Greycroft Partners, and 27-year-old Amit Mukherjee, senior associate at New Enterprise Associates.

From the media sector, the list included 27-year-old Nisha Chittal, manager of social media and community at MSNBC and Ashish Patel, 29, senior vice-president of Social Media at NowThis Media.

In the manufacturing segment, 28-year-old Sampriti Bhattacharyya made to the list for developing underwater drones that are capable of autonomously communicating and working together to scan the ocean to look for lost planes, or measure oil spills or radiation under the sea. Twenty-nine-year-old Saagar Govil, CEO of Cemtrex which produces environmental products and electronics solutions, also made it to the list.

Among the social entrepreneurs to be included is 28-year-old Anoop Jain, founding director of Sanitation and Health Rights in India, which builds toilets, collects human waste and uses methane coming off that excrement to create clean water.

In law and policy, the list featured 26-year-old Ashish Kumbhat, a monetary policy expert in the Federal Reserve Board, 27-year-old Dipayan Ghosh, privacy and public policy advisor at Facebook and 28-year-old Anisha Singh, the former lead of the international policy division of United Sikhs, ''where she founded the national anti-bullying campaign and won a historic case against US Army requiring religious accommodation on behalf of a 19-year-old Sikh who'd been rejected from ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) programs,'' Forbes said.

From science, 29-year old Sanjam Garg, assistant professor at University of California Berkeley, featured in the list.